Designing interfacial chemical bonds towards advanced metal-based energy-storage/conversion materials

Interfacial chemical bonds have captured surging attentions as the effective improving manners for electrochemical ions-storage and energy-conversion systems, including alkali-ions batteries, photocatalysis (PC), electrocatalysis (EC) and photo-electrocatalysis (PEC). Compared to the traditional modified manners for carbon-metal composites, introducing bonds would render the great evolution of their electrochemical properties, mainly resulting from the increased active sites, quick electrons transfer and so on. In this review, the recent process of bonds was detailed summarized in relative areas. Meanwhile, the bonds could be divided into M − C and M-X-C (M presents metal elements; C is about carbon materials; X = O, S, N etc.), and their relative physical-chemical traits with validation means have been concluded. Moreover, despite the merits above, for battery systems, the bonds were deemed as the roles of enhancing structural stability and interfacial ions-storage capability. Alternatively, for PC and PEC systems, chemical bonds could speed up the interfacial charge transfer and hinder the recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes, whilst for EC system, they would serve as highly active electrocatalytic center, providing more stable interfacial structure. Finally, the review was anticipated to offer systematic and in-depth comprehension for interfacial bonds, whilst guiding the further exploring of the interface about advanced composites.