There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Since the discovery of mechanically exfoliated graphene in 2004, research on ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials has grown exponentially in the fields of condensed matter physics, material science, chemistry, and nanotechnology. Highlighting their compelling physical, chemical, electronic, and optical properties, as well as their various potential applications, in this Review, we summarize the state-of-art progress on the ultrathin 2D nanomaterials with a particular emphasis on their recent advances. First, we introduce the unique advances on ultrathin 2D nanomaterials, followed by the description of their composition and crystal structures. The assortments of their synthetic methods are then summarized, including insights on their advantages and limitations, alongside some recommendations on suitable characterization techniques. We also discuss in detail the utilization of these ultrathin 2D nanomaterials for wide ranges of potential applications among the electronics/optoelectronics, electrocat...

Recent Advances in Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials

Increasing demand for finding eco-friendly and everlasting energy sources is now totally depending on fuel cell technology. Though it is an eco-friendly way of producing energy for the urgent requirements, it needs to be improved to make it cheaper and more eco-friendly. Although there are several types of fuel cells, the hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) fuel cell is the one with zero carbon emission and water as the only byproduct. However, supplying fuels in the purest form (at least the H2) is essential to ensure higher life cycles and less decay in cell efficiency. The current large-scale H2 production is largely dependent on steam reforming of fossil fuels, which generates CO2 along with H2 and the source of which is going to be depleted. As an alternate, electrolysis of water has been given greater attention than the steam reforming. The reasons are as follows: the very high purity of the H2 produced, the abundant source, no need for high-temperature, high-pressure reactors, and so on. In earlier days,...

Recent Trends and Perspectives in Electrochemical Water Splitting with an Emphasis on Sulfide, Selenide, and Phosphide Catalysts of Fe, Co, and Ni: A Review

The hydrogen evolution reaction plays a decisive role in a range of electrochemical and photoelectrochemical devices. It requires efficient and robust electrocatalysts to lower the reaction overpotential and minimize energy consumption. Over the last decade, we have witnessed a rapid rise in new electrocatalysts, particularly those based on non-precious metals. Some of them approach the activity of precious metal benchmarks. Here, we present a comprehensive overview of the recent developments of heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Detailed discussion is organized from precious metals to non-precious metal compounds including alloys, chalcogenides, carbides, nitrides, borides and phosphides, and finally to metal-free materials. Emphasis is placed on the challenges facing these electrocatalysts and solutions for further improving their performance. We conclude with a perspective on the development of future HER electrocatalysts.

Recent advances in heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction

The persistently increasing energy consumption and the low abundance of conventional fuels have raised serious concerns all over the world. Thus, the development of technology for clean-energy production has become the major research priority worldwide. The globalization of advanced energy conversion technologies like rechargeable metal–air batteries, regenerated fuel cells, and water-splitting devices has been majorly benefitted by the development of apposite catalytic materials that can proficiently carry out the pertinent electrochemical processes like oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and water hydrolysis. Despite a handful of superbly performing commercial catalysts, the high cost and low electrochemical stability of precursors have consistently discouraged their long-term viability. As a promising substitute of conventional platinum-, palladium-, iridium-, gold-, silver-, and ruthenium-based catalysts, various transition-metal (TM) i...

Nickel-Based Electrocatalysts for Energy-Related Applications: Oxygen Reduction, Oxygen Evolution, and Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

Finding efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that can be effectively integrated with semiconductors is significantly challenging for solar-driven photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Herein, amorphous cobalt–iron hydroxide (CoFeH) nanosheets are synthesized by facile electrodeposition as an efficient catalyst for both electrochemical and PEC water oxidation. As a result of the high electrochemically active surface area and the amorphous nature, the optimized amorphous CoFeH nanosheets exhibit superior OER catalytic activity in alkaline environment with a small overpotential (280 mV) to achieve significant oxygen evolution (j = 10 mA cm−2) and a low Tafel slope (28 mV dec−1). Furthermore, CoFeH nanosheets are simply integrated with BiVO4 semiconductor to construct CoFeH/BiVO4 photoanodes that exhibit a significantly enhanced photocurrent density of 2.48 mA cm−2 (at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) and a much lower onset potential of 0.23 V (vs RHE) for PEC-OER. Careful electrochemical and optical studies reveal that the improved OER kinetics and high-quality interface at the CoFeH/BiVO4 junction, as well as the excellent optical transparency of CoFeH nanosheets, contribute to the high PEC performance. This study establishes amorphous CoFeH nanosheets as a highly competitive candidate for electrochemical and PEC water oxidation and provides general guidelines for designing efficient PEC systems.

Amorphous Cobalt–Iron Hydroxide Nanosheet Electrocatalyst for Efficient Electrochemical and Photo-Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution

We report polymorphic CoSe2 (p-CoSe2) with mixed orthorhombic and cubic phases as a highly active electrocatalyst toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The p-CoSe2 is obtained by calcining CoSex via electrodeposition at 300 °C. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) demonstrated the crystal structure of p-CoSe2. The p-CoSe2 exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity for HER with a low onset overpotential of −70 mV and a small Tafel slope of ∼30 mV/decade, which are basically state-of-the-art performance of earth-abundant electrocatalysts. The HER performance of p-CoSe2 was much higher than that of amorphous CoSex, cubic CoSe2, and CoSe. This study offers a competitive electrocatalyst for HER and opens up a new strategy to the synthesis of catalysts for energy conversion.

Polymorphic CoSe2 with mixed orthorhombic and cubic phases for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction.

We synthesized vertical NiS2 nanosheets supported on a graphite substrate, which were fabricated by the surfactant-templated reaction followed by sulfidation. These nanosheets are efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Structural characterization revealed that the as-grown NiS2 existed in a pyrite-structure and vertical nanosheets. The NiS2 electrocatalyst exhibited excellent activity and stability toward HER in both acidic and alkaline solution, with low Tafel slopes of ∼40 and ∼80 mV per decade, respectively.

Xiaolin Wu

Papers

Amorphous Cobalt–Iron Hydroxide Nanosheet Electrocatalyst for Efficient Electrochemical and Photo-Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution

Polymorphic CoSe2 with mixed orthorhombic and cubic phases for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction.

Synthesis of supported vertical NiS2 nanosheets for hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic and alkaline solution

Ni0.85Se as an efficient non-noble bifunctional electrocatalyst for full water splitting

Three-Dimensional Porous NiO Nanosheets Vertically Grown on Graphite Disks for Enhanced Performance Non-enzymatic Glucose Sensor