Nanostructured Electrocatalysts with Atomically Thin Noble Metal Layers for Chemical and Energy Conversions

Owing to the ever-increasing significance of the climate change, there have been various efforts to de-carbonize the energy production and utilization cycles. Electrocatalytic conversion reactions are often playing key roles in many of the relevant processes. For instance, splitting of water are essential for the green hydrogen production, and CO₂ reduction is widely studied to achieve negative emission while producing value-added chemicals and fuels. Meanwhile, these electrocatalysts are often composed of noble metals, which increase the overall cost and bring down the economic feasibility of the whole process. There have been substantial efforts to develop noble metal-free catalysts during the past decades, and noteworthy technological advances have been made. Meanwhile, it is also revealed that complete replacement of noble metal might not be ideal in many cases, as very small amount of noble metals sometimes leads to a massive increase in the overall performance. Based on these understandings, our recent research efforts on development of electrocatalysts with atomically thin noble metal layers on the surface will be introduced in this presentation. By combinations of noble metals and compounds with chemical robustness and conductivity, high active and stable electrocatalysts for various chemical and energy conversion reactions are developed. Guidelines for selection of durable compounds are suggested with regard to the synthesis feasibility and durability, and strategies to simplify the production of electrocatalysts are explored.