title: Non-Noble Metal-based Carbon Composites in Hydrogen Evolution Reaction: Fundamentals to Applications.
abstract: Hydrogen has been hailed as a clean and sustainable alternative to finite fossil fuels in many energy systems. Water splitting is an important method for hydrogen production in high purity and large quantities. To accelerate the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) rate, it is highly necessary to develop high efficiency catalysts and to select a proper electrolyte. Herein, the performances of non-noble metal-based carbon composites under various pH values (acid, alkaline and neutral media) for HER in terms of catalyst synthesis, structure and molecular design are systematically discussed. A detailed analysis of the structure-activity-pH correlations in the HER process gives an insight on the origin of the pH-dependence for HER, and provide guidance for future HER mechanism studies on non-noble metal-based carbon composites. Furthermore, this Review gives a fresh impetus to rational design of high-performance noble-metal-free composites catalysts and guide researchers to employ the established electrocatalysts in proper water electrolysis technologies.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Center for Chemistry of High-performance and Novel Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Center for Chemistry of High-performance and Novel Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Center for Chemistry of High-performance and Novel Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Haiyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Center for Chemistry of High-performance and Novel Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yiqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Center for Chemistry of High-performance and Novel Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: carbon composites; electrocatalysts; hydrogen evolution reaction; non-noble metals