Introduction

Electrocatalysis plays a pivotal role in sustainable energy conversion and storage technologies, such as water splitting, fuel cell, metal-air battery, CO₂ electroreduction, NH3 electrosynthesis, and biomass upgrading, providing great promise to address the ever-increasing energy depletion crisis and associated environmental problems. Among these sustainable energy technologies, a series of electrochemical reactions are key to dominating the overall system efficiency, including but not limited to the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR), CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), nitrate reduction reaction (NO₃RR), chlorine evolution reaction (CER), methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), and urea oxidation reaction (UOR). However, these key reactions always possess intrinsically sluggish kinetics, thus necessitating the development of efficient electrocatalysts to expedite the reaction rate.

This Special topic offers a timely platform to showcase cutting-edge research and perspectives on the rational design of advanced electrocatalysts that break new ground in activity, selectivity, and stability, with special emphasis on establishing accurate property-performance correlation. Topics will encompass electrocatalyst synthesis, advanced characterization (especially in-situ/operando techniques), mechanistic understanding studies, and high-efficiency device applications. By bridging electrochemistry, materials chemistry, and sustainable engineering, the issue aims to accelerate progress on clean-energy-oriented electrochemical technologies towards a low-carbon and sustainable future.

Keywords: Electrocatalysis, electrocatalyst design, small molecule conversion, water splitting, fuel cell, metal-air battery, CO₂/N₂/nitrate electroreduction, sustainable energy

Submission Link: https://sciflux.org/authors/submissions

Journal Homepage: https://www.sciltp.com/journals/sen

Editorial Office Contact: sen@sciltp.com

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2026

All manuscripts will undergo peer review in accordance with the journal’s established policies and procedures. Final acceptance will be based on the peer-review reports and the evaluation of the Academic Editors and the Editor-in-Chief. Decisions will be made by the Editor-in-Chief or Academic Editors who have no conflicts of interest with any of the authors.

Academic editors:

Prof. Yinlong Zhu
Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China
Email: zhuyl1989@nuaa.edu.cn

Prof. Ziqi Sun
School of Chemistry and Physics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Email: ziqi.sun@qut.edu.au

Prof. Yifei Sun
College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Email: yfsun@xmu.edu.cn

Prof. Huanyu Jin
Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
Email: hy.jin2@siat.ac.cn