Electro catalytic oxidation reactions for harvesting alternative energy over non noble metal oxides: Are we a step closer to sustainable energy solution?

Methanol oxidation reaction and oxygen evolution reaction are the two fundamental and bottleneck reactions of methanol and hydrogen economy. Due to cost, slow reaction kinetics and associated poisoning issues with noble metal catalysts, a substantial amount of research have been focused on non-noble metal structured oxides, where the solid state structure coupled with its unique surface properties have demonstrated low overpotentials and high current densities with fascinating chemistry and potential to commercialization. The transition metal oxides with cubic rock salt, spinel and perovskite structures have been the interest of research for many years for methanol oxidation reaction and oxygen evolution reaction. However, in spite of significant studies, there is not a single monograph on compiling and critically comparing the mechanism and performances of these two electrocatalytic oxidation reactions over structured oxides. This review probes the mechanism and efficiency of methanol oxidation reaction and oxygen evolution reaction in light of solid state structures, anionic vacancies, corresponding surface morphologies and electronic configurations of oxide catalysts. An overall critical conclusion is drawn at the end of this article. (c) 2021 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.