Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Zhiqiang (Andrew) Xie

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering, UT Space Institute, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37388, USA
Interests: catalysts; water electrolysis/hydrogen production; fuel cell; rechargeable Li/Zn ion batteries; electrochemical energy storage/conversion

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ever-increasing global energy demands have driven extensive research efforts on developing renewable and green electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies in the past decade. Water splitting has become a promising carbon-free approach to produce hydrogen as a clean fuel with a high specific energy and environmental friendliness via the integration of various renewable energy sources. Currently, low-temperature water electrolysis technologies can be mainly categorized into alkaline electrolysis, anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysis, and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis. For these water electrolysis technologies, catalysts and electrode fabrications not only largely determine energy efficiency and durability but also mainly contribute to the overall capital and operation costs of water electrolysis for real device applications in industry. Particle size, morphology/nanostructure, conductivity, and surface chemistry properties have been demonstrated to be the major influencing factors for overall water splitting reactions.

This Special Issue welcomes the submission of original research papers, reviews, and perspectives that focus on promising and novel research outcomes in the synthesis, functionalization, characterization, and application of novel catalysts for water electrolysis. Submissions may cover themes including but not limited to:

Cost-effective synthesis approaches of novel catalysts including bi-functional catalysts for overall water electrolysis;
Elaborate fabrication of robust electrodes with high durability;
Catalyst degradation and electrode failure mechanisms using advanced in situ and ex situ characterization techniques;
Performance evaluation from conventional RDE testing to device levels, such as AEM electrolyzers and PEM electrolyzers.

Dr. Zhiqiang (Andrew) Xie
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

catalysts
oxygen evolution reaction (OER)
hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)
water splitting
hydrogen production

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

13 pages, 2952 KiB

Open AccessArticle

RuCo Alloy Nanoparticles Embedded into N-Doped Carbon for High Efficiency Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalyst

by Cheng Wang, Yibo Wang, Zhaoping Shi, Wenhua Luo, Junjie Ge, Wei Xing, Ge Sang and Changpeng Liu

Energies 2022, 15(8), 2908; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15082908 - 15 Apr 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2185

Abstract

For large-scale and sustainable water electrolysis, it is of great significance to develop cheap and efficient electrocatalysts that can replace platinum. Currently, it is difficult for most catalysts to combine high activity and stability. To solve this problem, we use cobalt to regulate the electronic structure of ruthenium to achieve high activity, and use carbon matrix to protect alloy nanoparticles to achieve high stability. Herein, based on the zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), a novel hybrid composed of RuCo alloy nano-particles and N-doped carbon was prepared via a facile pyrolysis-displacement-sintering strategy. Due to the unique porous structure and multi-component synergy, the optimal RuCo500@NC750 material in both acidic and alkaline media exhibited eminent HER catalytic activity. Notably, the 3-RuCo500@NC750 obtained a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² at 22 mV and 31 mV in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ and 1.0 M KOH, respectively, comparable to that of the reference Pt/C catalyst. Furthermore, the Tafel slopes of the catalyst are 52 mV Dec⁻¹ and 47 mV Dec⁻¹, respectively, under acid and alkali conditions, and the catalyst has good stability, indicating that it has broad application prospects in practical electrolytic systems. This work contributes to understanding the role of carbon-supported polymetallic alloy in the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution process, and provides some inspiration for the development of a high efficiency hydrogen evolution catalyst. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances of Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Water Splitting)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

43 pages, 27886 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Review of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction—A Basic Approach

by Thomas B. Ferriday, Peter Hugh Middleton and Mohan Lal Kolhe

Energies 2021, 14(24), 8535; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14248535 - 17 Dec 2021

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6836

Abstract

An increasing emphasis on energy storage has resulted in a surge of R&D efforts into producing catalyst materials for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with emphasis on decreasing the usage of platinum group metals (PGMs). Alkaline water electrolysis holds promise for satisfying future energy storage demands, however the intrinsic potential of this technology is impeded by sluggish reaction kinetics. Here, we summarize the latest efforts within alkaline HER electrocatalyst design, where these efforts are divided between three catalyst design strategies inspired by the three prevailing theories describing the pH-dependence of the HER activity. Modifying the electronic structure of a host through codoping and creating specific sites for hydrogen/hydroxide adsorption stand out as promising strategies. However, with the vast amount of possible combinations, emphasis on screening parameters is important. The authors predict that creating a codoped catalyst using the first strategy by screening materials based on their hydrogen, hydroxide and water binding energies, and utilizing the second and third strategies as optimization parameters might yield both active and stable HER catalyst materials. This strategy has the potential to greatly advance the current status of alkaline water electrolysis as an energy storage option. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances of Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Water Splitting)

► Show Figures