Metal chalcogenides: An emerging material for electrocatalysis

The excessive consumption of fossil energy caused an energy crisis and a series of environmental issues. Therefore, it is necessary to develop sustainable and clean energy sources. Electrocatalysts play an important role in the development of various new energy devices; in particular, high-efficiency and low-cost catalysts are essential for the large-scale application of these new devices. Among the many electrocatalysts, metal chalcogenides (sulfides, selenides, and tellurides) as emerging materials own abundant active sites and good electrical conductivity and are widely studied for their excellent electrocatalytic performances. This Perspective reviews the recent applications of metal chalcogenide materials in electrocatalysis, including hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, and electrolyzing water and specifically summarizes different optimization strategies and catalytic reaction mechanisms. The several regulation strategies include heteroatom doping, phase engineering, heterostructures, and hybrid materials, which are capable of improving conductivity, increasing active site exposure, and reducing the energy barrier of catalytic reactions to enhanced electrocatalytic performances. In Sec. IV, the existing problems and future challenges are proposed for the improvement of catalytic performance of metal chalcogenide materials, which provide an insight into and valuable guidelines for the future development of high-efficiency and low-cost electrocatalysts for new energy devices.