Multiscale Principles To Boost Reactivity in Gas-Involving Energy Electrocatalysis

Various gas-involving energy electrocatalysis, including oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), has witnessed increasing concerns recently for the sake of clean, renewable, and efficient energy technologies. However, these heterogeneous reactions exhibit sluggish kinetics due to multistep electron transfer and only occur at triple-phase boundary regions. Up to now, tremendous attention has been attracted to develop cost-effective and high-performance electrocatalysts to boost the electrocatalytic activities as promising alternatives to noble metal counterparts. In addition to the prolific achievements in materials science, the advances in interface chemistry are also very critical in consideration of the complex phenomena proceeded at triple-phase boundary regions, such as mass diffusion, electron transfer, and surface reaction. Therefore, insightful principles and effective strategies for a comprehensive optimization, ranging from active sites to electrochemical interface, are necessary to fully enhance the electrocatalytic performance aiming at practical device applications. In this Account, we give an overview of our recent attempts toward efficient gas-involving electrocatalysis with multiscale principles from the respect of electronic structure, hierarchical morphology, and electrode interface step by step. It is widely accepted that the intrinsic activity of individual active sites is directly influenced by their electronic structure. Heteroatom doping and topological defects are demonstrated to be the most effective strategies for metal-free nanocarbon materials, while the cationic (e.g., Ni, Fe, Co, Sn) and anionic (e.g., O, S, OH) regulation is revealed to be a promising method for transition metal compounds, to alter the electronic structure and generate high activity. Additionally, the apparent activity of the whole electrocatalyst is significantly impacted by its hierarchical morphology. The active sites of nanocarbon materials are expected to be enriched on the surface for a full exposure and utilization; the hybridization of other active components with nanocarbon materials should achieve a uniform dispersion in nanoscale and a strongly coupled interface, thereby ensuring the electron transfer and boosting the activity. Furthermore, steady and favorable electrochemical interfaces are strongly anticipated in working electrodes for optimal reaction conditions. The powdery electrocatalysts are suggested to be constructed into self-supported electrodes for more efficient and stable catalysis integrally, while the local microenvironment can be versatilely modified by ionic liquids with more beneficial gas solubility and hydrophobicity. Collectively, with the all-round regulation of the electronic structure, hierarchical morphology, and electrode interface, the electrocatalytic performances are demonstrated to be comprehensively facilitated. Such multiscale principles stemmed from the in-depth insights on the structure-activity relationship and heterogeneous reaction characteristics will no doubt pave the way for the future development of gas-involving energy electrocatalysis, and also afford constructive inspirations in a broad range of research including CO₂ reduction reaction, hydrogen peroxide production, nitrogen reduction reaction, and other important electrocatalytic activation of small molecules.