Review reveals interface engineering principles in water electrolysis systems, highlighting pathways to overcome kinetic barriers and catalyst degradation.
Key Points
Establish mechanistic design principles for interface-engineered electrocatalysts by evaluating how heterointerfaces regulate reaction kinetics and durability in water electrolysis.
Synthesized recent advances in electrocatalysis organized by elementary reaction steps and pathways rather than material classes.
Evaluated interfacial phenomena including local charge redistribution, complementary active sites, intermediate transport, and structural evolution under operating conditions.
Interfacial charge redistribution and complementary active sites cooperatively optimize adsorption energetics and facilitate intermediate migration for both hydrogen and oxygen evolution.
Dynamic structural evolution at heterointerfaces strongly impacts catalytic stability, requiring preservation of structural integrity and site accessibility under operating potentials.
Identified a critical performance gap between intrinsic catalytic activity measured in idealized laboratory settings and actual device-level electrolyzer stability.