Research progress in the application of electrospinning technology in the preparation of electrocatalysts and the carrier materials

Compared with traditional fiber preparation methods such as mechanical drawing, electrospinning is simpler and more economical and therefore has a wide range of applications in the areas of fuel cell, metal-air battery, water electrolysis device, etc. This article first introduced the working principle, influencing factors and development status of the electrospinning technology. Then, the research progress of electrospinning in the preparation of electrocatalysts and carrier material was summarized, including: ①For alkaline solutions, transition metal derivatives and metal-carbon nanofibers prepared by electrospinning have shown excellent electrocatalytic performance and considerable economic benefits under various electrochemical reactions; ②In water electrolysis reactions, the iridium-based catalysts prepared by electrospinning can exhibit a uniform one-dimensional nanostructure, which has higher specific surface area and better dispersibility and thus could provide excellent catalytic activity; ③In the acidic oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, the electrospun tin antimony oxide (ATO) carrier has shown good electrical conductivity, which not only provides a better electron transfer structure and catalytic active site for the catalyst, but also plays a role in structural protection. Thus, it can improve the catalytic activity and stability. Then, this article summarized the advantages and limitations of preparing catalysts or their carriers by electrospinning. It was found that the one-dimensional nano-catalyst has excellent fiber morphology compared to traditional ones, which could provide larger specific surface area and lower mass transfer resistance. Thus, it can effectively solve the problems of traditional metal catalyst particles, such as the low dispersion and low activity. Finally, in order to further improve the oxygen evolution catalytic performance of electrospinning catalysts and achieve the controllability of electrospinning fiber arrangement structures, some suggestions and prospects were proposed for the future development of electrospinning technology. © 2021, Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All right reserved.