Amorphous/crystalline heterophase electrocatalysts: synthesis, applications and perspectives

Phase engineering is arising as an effective strategy to regulate the properties, functions and applications of nanomaterials. In particular, amorphous/crystalline (a/c) heterophase nanostructures with enriched active sites, unsaturated coordination structures and abundant phase boundaries have exhibited some intriguing properties in various catalytic applications. This review briefly summarizes the recent advances on the synthetic strategies (e.g., wet-chemical synthesis, thermal annealing, electrochemical strategy, ultrafast heating method and other strategies) and electrocatalytic applications (e.g., water splitting, oxygen reduction reaction, carbon dioxide reduction reaction, nitrogen reduction reaction and organic electrooxidation reaction) of a/c heterophase catalysts. Finally, some challenges and personal perspectives for the a/c heterophase electrocatalysts are provided.