Review of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction—A Basic Approach

Thomas B. Ferriday, Peter Hugh Middleton and Mohan Lal Kolhe
Additional contact information
Thomas B. Ferriday: Department of Engineering Science, University of Agder, 4879 Grimstad, Norway
Peter Hugh Middleton: Department of Engineering Science, University of Agder, 4879 Grimstad, Norway
Mohan Lal Kolhe: Department of Engineering Science, University of Agder, 4879 Grimstad, Norway

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-43

Abstract: An increasing emphasis on energy storage has resulted in a surge of R&D efforts into producing catalyst materials for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with emphasis on decreasing the usage of platinum group metals (PGMs). Alkaline water electrolysis holds promise for satisfying future energy storage demands, however the intrinsic potential of this technology is impeded by sluggish reaction kinetics. Here, we summarize the latest efforts within alkaline HER electrocatalyst design, where these efforts are divided between three catalyst design strategies inspired by the three prevailing theories describing the pH-dependence of the HER activity. Modifying the electronic structure of a host through codoping and creating specific sites for hydrogen/hydroxide adsorption stand out as promising strategies. However, with the vast amount of possible combinations, emphasis on screening parameters is important. The authors predict that creating a codoped catalyst using the first strategy by screening materials based on their hydrogen, hydroxide and water binding energies, and utilizing the second and third strategies as optimization parameters might yield both active and stable HER catalyst materials. This strategy has the potential to greatly advance the current status of alkaline water electrolysis as an energy storage option.

Keywords: alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction; alkaline HER; water electrolysis; catalyst materials; anion exchange membrane electrolysis; AEM electrolysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8535/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8535/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:24:p:8535-:d:705270

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().