Recent advancements in heterostructured interface engineering for hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysis

Abstract

Searching for a clean and renewable energy system is vital to alleviate the exacerbated environmental pollution problem while addressing the energy dilemma. With clean, renewable and high calorific value features, hydrogen has been identified as an ideal energy carrier to change the global energy structure and accomplish energy conversion in the future. A promising technique to generate hydrogen is water electrolysis, but rationally designing cost-effective and highly efficient catalysts to facilitate their widespread industrialization is still a formidable challenge. In the recent years, heterostructure materials have led to newer types of electrocatalysts owing to their unique physicochemical properties. Constructing heterostructures is regarded as a very important surface engineering aspect for the advancement of HER catalysts. Therefore, we present a review of the recent progress made in the fabrication of heterostructure materials toward HER in order to provide an insight into the catalytic properties of heterostructure catalysts. We start with the introduction of the HER mechanism and the evaluation standards for HER performance. Then, we summarize the synthetic strategies for preparing heterostructure catalysts as well as discussing their catalytic properties for HER. Finally, we discuss the opportunities and challenges for the future development of heterostructure catalysts from the perspectives of material design and synthesis.