Design Principles of Multifunctional Nanocatalysts: From Sustainable Organic Transformations to Water Splitting and Energy Storage

Every passing decade demands a sustainable industrial revolution to cope with the population explosion and increasing energy demands. Multifunctional catalysis can be a major breakthrough contributing both in energy conservation and production. The diverse set of applications of such catalysts depend on its design strategy. In this account we majorly focus on the contribution made by our group in this field. Design principles such as alloying and coupling were mainly adapted for catalytic modulation. Early studies on multifunctional catalyst reveal potential application in organic reactions (alcohol oxidation, nitrile reduction, click chemistry, C-C and C-N bond formation). This initial success in molecular catalysis paved way for research and application of multifunctional catalysts in energy related reactions (water splitting, HER, ORR).