Recent Advances for Seawater Hydrogen Evolution

Hydrogen production from electrolysis of seawater is considered one of the most promising endeavors. However, the complexity of the seawater environment (corrosion-prone, slow kinetics, and side reactions such as precipitation generation) leaves much room for progress in research on efficient and stable catalysts. In recent years, in order to improve the technology of hydrogen production from electrolytic seawater, scientists have focused on the preparation of catalysts and the design of electrolytes, which has resulted in important progress. In order to further understand the current research status and development prospects of seawater hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), this article summarizes the general design rules for electrocatalysts and electrolytes in seawater HER in recent years. For structure modulation, the effects of catalyst modulation strategies such as heterostructures, elemental doping, manufacturing defects, morphology engineering and others on performance enhancement are highlighted. Overall design guidelines are summarized for the electrolyte and directions for future in-depth exploration are proposed with a view to the early realization of seawater hydrogen production on an industrial scale. The earth's abundant seawater resources hold the promise of replacing fresh water for high-performance electrolytic hydrogen production. In the past few years, the technology of seawater hydrogen production has made great progress, ranging from the use of various modulation strategies (heterostructures interfaces, doping, defects, morphology, etc.) to achieve highly efficient, stable and inexpensive catalysts, to the rational modulation of the electrolyte, all of which have played a significant role in the further development of electrolytic seawater hydrogen production technology. image