Enabling Internal Electric Fields to Enhance Energy and Environmental Catalysis

摘要

Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of interest in exploiting advancedphoto-/electrocatalysts for efficient energy conversion and environmentalremediation. Constructing internal electric fields has been highlighted asa rising star to help facilitate various catalytic processes, with the meritsof promoting charge transfer/separation, optimizing redox potential andcreating effective active/adsorption sites. Internal electric fields are usuallyformed by the polarization of uneven charge distributions betweendifferent constituent layers, which widely exist in piezoelectrics, polarsurface terminations, and heterostructure materials. Herein, a groundbreakingand interdisciplinary overview of the latest advances in theconstruction of internal electric fields to improve photo(electro)catalyticand electrocatalytic activity is provided. This critical review begins withan encyclopedic summary of the classification, advantages, and synthesisstrategies of internal electric fields. Subsequently, the identificationmethods are thoroughly discussed based on the characterizationtechniques, experiments, and theoretical calculations, which can provideprofound guidance for the in-depth study of internal electric fields. Toelaborate the theory–structure–activity relationships for internal electricfields, the corresponding reaction mechanisms, modification strategies,and catalytic performance are jointly discussed, along with a discussionof their practical energy and environmental applications. Finally,an insightful analysis of the challenges and future prospects for internalelectric field-based catalysts are discussed.