Electrocatalysts are central to several technologies that utilize chemical energy, produce chemical energy, and/or create a diverse array of chemical products. Although some electrocatalytic materials are already central to the chemical industry and energy sector, the introduction of other electrocatalytic materials and/or the expansion of electrocatalytic materials to other applications will require improving their performance. Materials chemistry has offered many opportunities for the custom design of electrocatalytic materials through tuning composition of these materials. There are still many opportunities for advancing the science of these materials, harnessing their properties, and achieving their optimal performance. The design of the interface of electrocatalytic materials is a key aspect to assisting in improving their performance. In addition to adjusting their composition to tune functionality and to achieve more economical solutions to precious metal-based catalysts, tuning their structure from the nanoscale through to the microscale offers the ability to further optimize their performance. The optimal length scales of these structures depend on the electrocatalytic process under consideration (e.g., gas evolution processes in contrast to chemical transformation from gas reactants), but also the applied current densities and anticipated mass transport for these materials. This report will review some avenues for preparing structured electrocatalysts with features spanning multiple dimensions, along with some examples of their performance in electrocatalytic reactions. Techniques that will be discussed include scalable processes for large-scale production, as well as techniques that lend themselves to a systematic approach to elucidate critical dimensions of structured electrocatalytic materials. By way of examples, the discussions will focus on the development of electrocatalytic materials relevant to the oxygen reduction reaction of polymer electrolyte fuel cells and the oxygen evolution reaction of water electrolyzers.

Guiding the development of electrocatalysts with improve performance through the preparation of structured materials spanning multiple length scales

ACS Fall 2021

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