Advanced electrocatalytic systems for enhanced atom/electron utilization

Value-added chemical production via electrocatalysis is of great significance in green chemical society, the industrialization of which, however, is restricted by its low profit, especially due to the high energy cost and single target product. This means that the atoms/electrons in the whole electrocatalytic system are far from being efficiently utilized. Herein, to achieve maximum atom/electron utilization, the most recent advances are summarized in three stages based on the levels of atom/electron utilization of the whole system: (i) traditional electrocatalytic systems featuring half atom/electron utilization (HU-ES), (ii) atom/electron utilization semi-enhanced electrocatalytic systems (USE-ES), including co-electrolysis systems (CES) and self-powered electrocatalytic systems (SPES), and (iii) atom/electron full utilization electrocatalytic systems (FU-ES), including rechargeable functional batteries (RFB) and self-co-electrolysis systems (SCES). We will mainly focus on the development of various systems as well as the corresponding electrocatalysts in this review. The present challenges and related prospects will also be discussed, hopefully to benefit further development of electrocatalytic systems with much enhanced atom/electron utilization in the future.