Research

The increasing energy demand and global warming have prompted scientists to seek new renewable and green energy sources. In recent decades, there has been significant interest in utilizing hydrogen (H2) as a clean and renewable alternative energy source to fossil fuels. To this end, electrocatalytic water reduction offers a prominent approach for sustainable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with a minimal CO2 footprint, providing a possible solution to global energy problems. Consequently, the momentum has firmly shifted to design catalysts with earth-abundant transition metals for green hydrogen evolution. However, these catalysts often require acids and polar organic media, limiting their practicality for large-scale H2 production. In contrast, literature on the use of water or water‐organic media for producing H2 with 3d metal catalysts that are less toxic and adhere to green chemistry principles is scarce. Owing to this issue, it is crucial to design and develop catalysts with greater activity, selectivity, and stability to produce H2 for practical industrial applications from an omnipresent, inexpensive, and non-toxic source like water.