A review of pulse electrolysis for efficient energy conversion and chemical production

Electrochemical transformation emerges as an important solution to sustainable energy conversion and chemical production. Conventional electrolytic systems usually operate under galvanostatic or potentiostatic conditions that sometimes result in unsatisfactory efficiencies or selectivities. Pulse electrolysis by pulsating and programming the potentials/currents can feature unique tunability to the electrode-electrolyte interface properties that can give rise to drastically different electrochemical behaviors compared to the steady-state counterparts. Although invented almost 100 years ago, pulse electrolysis has received little attention over the period, but has recently attracted a revived focus toward the energy-efficient electrolysis. This review will summarize the history and recent efforts of pulse electrolysis in three categories: water electrolysis, CO2 electrolysis and other electrolysis. In each section, the advantage of pulse electrolysis over steady-state electrolysis will be discussed in detail, giving a comprehensive overview of the pulse effect on the electrolytic systems. Finally, we will provide our vision of future directions in pulse electrolysis based on previous works.