A perspective on field-effect in energy and environmental catalysis

Abstract

The development of catalytic technologies for sustainable energy conversion is a critical step toward addressing fossil fuel depletion and associated environmental challenges. High-efficiency catalysts are fundamental to advancing these technologies. Recently, field-effect facilitated catalytic processes have emerged as a promising approach in energy and environmental applications, including water splitting, CO₂ reduction, nitrogen reduction, organic electrosynthesis, and biomass recycling. Field-effect catalysis offers multiple advantages, such as enhancing localized reactant concentration, facilitating mass transfer, improving reactant adsorption, modifying electronic excitation and work functions, and enabling efficient charge transfer and separation. This review begins by defining and classifying field effects in catalysis, followed by an in-depth discussion on their roles and potential to guide further exploration of field-effect catalysis. To elucidate the theory-structure–activity relationship, we explore corresponding reaction mechanisms, modification strategies, and catalytic properties, highlighting their relevance to sustainable energy and environmental catalysis applications. Lastly, we offer perspectives on potential challenges that field-effect catalysis may face, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding and future direction for this emerging area.