Graphene-Based Electrocatalytic Materials Towards Electrochemical Water Splitting

Electrochemical water splitting has gained significant attention as a key pathway to harness clean and sustainable energy in the form of hydrogen fuel. In the search for alternative noble metal electrocatalysts, recently graphene and graphene based materials opened an attractive platform for designing efficient electrocatalyst materials due to their exceptional properties, such as high surface area, excellent electrical conductivity, and facile tunability, etc. The synthesis methods are employed to engineer graphene-based materials with enhanced catalytic activity to summarize both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER). The complex relationship between the structure of graphene and its catalytic effectiveness is used to enlighten the mechanisms to govern its electrocatalytic behavior. The functionalization and doping of graphene also make an impact on optimizing electrocatalytic properties, emphasizing the role of heteroatom incorporation and surface modification. The challenges associated with graphene-based electrocatalysts, such as stability and scalability are mentioned, and also discussed innovative approaches to mitigate their limitations. This chapter overviews recent developments in graphene-based electrocatalytic materials for electrochemical water splitting applications. It specifically starts with a basic introduction of graphene based materials, different synthesis methods, complex relation of the structure of graphene with its catalytic activity, structural tuning ability of the graphene for electrocatalytic application, and many more in a systematic way. At the end, this chapter concludes with the critical evolution of recent experimental findings for a deeper understanding of the potential of graphene-based electrocatalytic materials for achieving efficient hydrogen and oxygen evolution, for a cleaner energy landscape and sustainable future.