Electrocatalysis using nanomaterials

Since the turn of the millennium, the search for highly efficient electrocatalysts has been strongly directed toward nanomaterials, which exhibit an array of interesting properties due to finite-size effects. For example, nanoelectrocatalysts usually have enhanced electrical conductivity, high effective electrochemically active surface area, and tunable strength of substrate/intermediate bonding, among other useful electrochemical properties. In this chapter, we explore what makes nanoelectrocatalysts so effective. This includes an introduction to nanoscale effects in electrocatalysis followed by an overview of the electrochemical characterization techniques most typically applied to electrocatalytic nanomaterials. We then provide in-depth discussion on some of the most important electrocatalytic processes of interest, namely those reactions in which H[sbnd]H, O[dbnd]O, and C[sbnd]O bonds are broken or formed over nanoelectrocatalysts, and go on to showcase the potential of these materials to catalyze the formation of N-containing compounds.