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REVIEW article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Sustainable Energy Systems
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1433103
This article is part of the Research Topic Innovations in Electrocatalytic Materials for Energy Sustainability View all articles

Transition Metal Nanomaterials-Based Electrocatalysts for Water and CO2 Electrolysis: Preparation, Catalytic Activity, and Prospects

Provisionally accepted
Govindhan Maduraiveeran Govindhan Maduraiveeran *
  • SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The production of hydrogen (H2) and multi-carbon fuels through water electrolysis (oxygen evolution reaction (OER)/hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)) and water-CO2 co-electrolysis (OER/CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR)), respectively, is supposed to be the emergent energy carrier. These electrochemical processes are essential chemical conversion pathways that initiate the changes toward renewable energy. This review summarizes the systematic design of earth-abundant transition metal-based nanomaterials, and their electrocatalytic activities towards electrochemical energy conversion reactions such as OER, HER, and CO2RR. The primary focus is on fabricating highly effective, low-cost, and advanced transition metal-based nanostructures for both OER/HER and OER/CO2RR systems. The developing synthetic strategies for surface morphology-controlled nanostructured electrocatalysts, engineering the electrode surface, enhancing electrocatalytic activity, understanding the relationship between intrinsic catalytic activity and preparation approaches or precursor choices, and exploring the reaction mechanism are concentrated. Furthermore, the current challenges, figure-of-merit, and prospects of transition metal-based nanomaterials and their electrocatalytic activities towards water electrolysis and water-CO2 co-electrolysis are described. The present study may open new opportunities to develop shape-controlled and high-performance electrocatalysts for electrochemical energy conversion and storage reactions.

    Keywords: Transition metal-based nanomaterials, electrochemical methods, water electrolysis, Co2 electrolysis, Energy conversion process

    Received: 15 May 2024; Accepted: 11 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maduraiveeran. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Govindhan Maduraiveeran, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.