Multifunctional Transition Metal-Based Phosphides in Energy-Related Electrocatalysis

The exploitation of cheap and efficient electrocatalysts is the key to make energy-related electrocatalytic techniques commercially viable. In recent years, transition metal phosphides (TMPs) electrocatalysts have gained a great deal of attention owing to their multifunctional active sites, tunable structure, and composition, as well as unique physicochemical properties. This review summarizes the up-to-date progress on TMPs in energy-related electrocatalysis from diversified synthetic methods, ingenious-modulated strategies, and novel applications. In order to set forth theory-structure-performance relationships upon TMPs, the corresponding reaction mechanisms, electrocatalytsts' structure/composition designs and desired electrochemical performance are jointly discussed, along with demonstrating their practical electrocatalytic applications in overall water splitting, metal-air batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries, etc. In the end, some underpinning issues and research orientations of TMPs toward efficient energy-related electrocatalysis are briefly proposed.