Hydrogen generated by water electrolysis is considered as one of the most promising protocols to partly replace the roles of traditional fossil fuels. However, high-performance electrocatalyst satisfied with the industrial requirement still faces significant challenges. Low-temperature plasma contains numerous high-energy ions, electrons and other reactive species, which can provide a highly reactive environment for tuning the physio-chemical structures of catalysts through plasma milling, etching, doping and/or deposition. It is well-known that high-temperature micro-filaments contained in plasmas can cause some special modifications of the catalyst surface, thus effectively adjusting the physio-chemical structure of latterly engineered compounds. Therefore, low-temperature plasma technologies, especially the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and radio frequency (RF) plasmas, can be considered as a green and sustainable strategy for engineering high-performance electrocatalysts for water splitting (hydrogen evolution reaction [HER]; oxygen evolution reaction [OER]). Herein, recent progress of DBD and RF plasmas for fabricating and modifying transition metal-based electrocatalysts (e.g. sulphide, phosphide, selenide, oxide, hydroxide) for hydrogen evolution reaction or OER is comprehensively reviewed, and the role of plasma is also discussed.

中文翻译：

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介电阻挡放电和射频等离子体工程过渡金属电催化剂在水分解方面的最新应用

水电解产生的氢气被认为是部分取代传统化石燃料的最有前途的方案之一。然而，满足工业需求的高性能电催化剂仍面临重大挑战。低温等离子体含有大量高能离子、电子和其他活性物质，可以为通过等离子体铣削、蚀刻、掺杂和/或沉积调节催化剂的物理化学结构提供高反应性环境。众所周知，等离子体中含有的高温微丝可以引起催化剂表面的一些特殊修饰，从而有效地调整后续工程化合物的物理化学结构。因此，低温等离子体技术，特别是介质阻挡放电（DBD）和射频（RF）等离子体，可以被认为是设计用于水分解（析氢反应[HER]；析氧反应[OER]）。本文全面综述了DBD和RF等离子体用于制备和改性用于析氢反应或OER的过渡金属基电催化剂（例如硫化物、磷化物、硒化物、氧化物、氢氧化物）的最新进展，并讨论了等离子体的作用。