Recent progress on earth abundant hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting in alkaline media

Electrochemical water-splitting is one of the promising ways for producing clean chemical fuel (Hydrogen) while cheap-earth-abundant-bifunctional-electrocatalyst is one of the possible way for improving the overall cost efficiency of water-splitting. This paper reviews the chemical state, hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction activity in alkaline media, overall water-splitting performance in alkaline media, stability, and possible-factors for improving its efficiency of various kinds of recently reported electrocatalyst such as Ni-P, Co-P, Ni-Co-P, graphene-Co-P, O/N/C-Co/Ni, Ni-S, B-Ni/Co, Ni-Co, Mo, Se, Fe, Mn/Zn/Ti, and metal-free based earth-abundant-bifunctional-electrocatalyst. This paper also reviews and highlights the remarkable water splitting performance of the earth-abundant-bifunctional-electrocatalyst those exhibit better or well comparable with Pt/C//RuO2. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.