Tungsten oxide-based electrocatalysts for energy conversion

Abstract

The advancement of cutting-edge energy conversion technologies offers significant potential for addressing environmental challenges, enhancing energy security, improving economic competitiveness, and promoting resource conservation. This progress necessitates the development of advanced electrocatalysts. WO_x demonstrates high intrinsic catalytic activity, excellent conductivity, an abundance of active sites, and remarkable stability, positioning it as a promising candidate for electrocatalytic reactions. Recently, there has been swift advancement in the development of WO_x-based catalysts for various energy-conversion reactions. This review provides a thorough summary of recent developments in WO_x-based catalysts for electrocatalytic reactions, emphasizing their multifunctional roles as active species, electron-transfer carriers, hydrogen spillover carriers, and microenvironment regulators. Moreover, it highlights the applications of WO_x-based catalysts across different electrocatalytic reactions, with particular focus on the structure–activity relationship. Finally, the review discusses the challenges and future directions of these technologies, as well as key research areas necessary for achieving large-scale applications.