Recent advances in electrocatalysts for seawater splitting in hydrogen evolution reaction

Electrocatalytic water splitting is an important method to produce green and renewable hydrogen (H2). One of the hindrances for wide applications of electrocatalysis in H2 production is the lack of freshwater resources. Comparatively, seawater splitting has become an effective approach for large-scale H2 production due to its abundant reserves. However, the increased complexity of seawater content emerged more problems in electrocatalytic seawater splitting. Recently, various strategies have been reported on improving the performance of electrocatalysts applied in seawater. Herein, this review firstly analyzed the mechanisms and challenges of electrocatalytic seawater splitting to evolve H2, and summarized the recent progress on H2 production in electrocatalytic seawater splitting. Furthermore, suggestions for future work have been provided for guidance.