Enhancing the Activity of Electrode Materials in Hydrogen Economy

Тhe subject of this book is to show the approaches to enhance electrocatalytic activity of pure metals. As a main approaches can be i) hypo-hyper d-interaction of the catalyst''s components ii) synergetic interaction between the catalyst''s components explained by d-band center theory and iii) the choice of support material. According to Jaksic''s hypo-hyper d-concept the mixture of hyper d- electronic transition metals (good individual catalysts) with hypo d- electronic transition metals or their compounds (poor catalysts) exhibits pronounced synergetic effect of electrocatalytic activity. According to d-band center theory the position of d-band has leading role in determining the affinity of d-metals to adsorption of variety of adsorbates such as H O CO etc. Generally the support material influence on the catalytic activity through the following i) highly developed surface area to provide better dispersion of the nano-scaled catalytic particles; ii) high electric conductivity to provide efficient electron transfer to ions involved in the electrochemical reactions and iii) mechanical and chemical stability.