Metal Compounds for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Growing concerns about global warming, environmental pollution, and energy security have increased the demand for clean energy to replace fossil fuels. The design and development of advanced electrocatalysts for efficient energy conversion technologies have been the subject of extensive research over the past decades. Among them is the cost-effective generation of hydrogen through electrocatalytic cracking of water, which holds great promise for clean energy. Recently, electrocatalytic hydrogen release aided by compounds based on nonprecious metals has attracted great attention. In particular, metal compounds (MCs) have shown high and efficient activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under different conditions. In addition, MC nanomaterials have been widely used due to their unique structures and properties. In this chapter, for these materials, we systematically discuss their recent advances in electrocatalytic hydrogen production. The challenges of these materials, important issues concerning the study of electrocatalysts, and future prospects are highlighted.