Addressing the energy efficiency and sustainability of electrocatalytic H₂ production via sulfion oxidation chemistry

The overall energy efficiency of H₂ production via electrocatalytic water-splitting processes is important for promoting and adapting the technology to commercial scales. However, conventional water-splitting processes suffer from high energy consumption owing to the high onset potential of the OER-coupled process. Sulfion oxidation coupled H₂ production offers the promise of producing H₂ at reasonably high current density at much lower energy consumption compared to that of the conventional process. This review offers a comprehensive account of the reports published in recent literature on the development of catalysts and the design of systems to handle SOR-coupled H₂ production. The effect of catalyst composition and structural modification on the efficacy and durability of the SOR process is analysed. The viability of the process for direct seawater electrolysis is studied based on the recent literature. The future scope and opportunities are discussed in the concluding section.