Activity descriptors for electrocatalysts in energy storage applications

Under the environmental concerns such as pollution and greenhouse effect, environment-friendly energy storage applications such as fuel cells, ammonia production and lithium-air batteries are proposed to replace fossil resources. However, the high overpotential is one of the most urgent issues for practical applications, and electrocatalysts are applied as a solution. Designing high-activity catalysts for electrochemical conversions is challenging. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China, and Shanghai University, Shanghai, China, reviewed some representative activity descriptors to screen high-activity catalysts in future high-throughput calculations and experiments. This work, titled “Adsorption-Energy-Based Activity Descriptors for Electrocatalysts in Energy Storage Applications,” was published in National Science Review.