Electrolyte Engineering as a Key Strategy Towards a Sustainable Energy Scenario?

Major challenges still need to be resolved on the way towards a sustainable energy scenario. A future vision comprises the development of electrocatalysts, refraining from using scarce noble metals, for electrocatalytic key processes, such as hydrogen and oxygen evolution and reduction reactions or CO2 reduction. Hitherto, the focus was set on the investigation of electrode materials, whereas only little emphasis was put on the electrolyte solution. Recently, it was reported that, under non-acidic pH conditions, the composition of the electrolyte solution has a non-negligible effect on the activity of electrocatalytic processes: this outcome puts forth the idea of electrolyte engineering, a promising strategy that, besides the study of enhanced electrode materials, should be put in the focus of future research investigations in electrocatalysis.