Electrocatalytic water splitting seems to be an efficient strategy to deal with increasingly serious environmental problems and energy crises but still suffers from the lack of stable and efficient electrocatalysts. Designing practical electrocatalysts by introducing defect engineering, such as hybrid structure, surface vacancies, functional modification, and structural distortions, is proven to be a dependable solution for fabricating electrocatalysts with high catalytic activities, robust stability, and good practicability. This review is an overview of some relevant reports about the effects of defect engineering on the electrocatalytic water splitting performance of electrocatalysts. In detail, the types of defects, the preparation and characterization methods, and catalytic performances of electrocatalysts are presented, emphasizing the effects of the introduced defects on the electronic structures of electrocatalysts and the optimization of the intermediates' adsorption energy throughout the review. Finally, the existing challenges and personal perspectives of possible strategies for enhancing the catalytic performances of electrocatalysts are proposed. An in-depth understanding of the effects of defect engineering on the catalytic performance of electrocatalysts will light the way to design high-efficiency electrocatalysts for water splitting and other possible applications.

中文翻译：

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用于水分解的过渡金属（Fe、Co 和 Ni）基电催化剂的缺陷工程

电催化水分解似乎是应对日益严重的环境问题和能源危机的有效策略，但仍然缺乏稳定和高效的电催化剂。通过引入杂化结构、表面空位、功能修饰和结构扭曲等缺陷工程来设计实用的电催化剂，被证明是制造具有高催化活性、鲁棒稳定性和良好实用性的电催化剂的可靠解决方案。本文综述了一些关于缺陷工程对电催化剂电催化水分解性能影响的相关报道。详细介绍了电催化剂的缺陷类型、制备和表征方法以及催化性能，重点介绍了引入的缺陷对电催化剂电子结构的影响以及中间体吸附能的优化。最后，提出了提高电催化剂催化性能的现有挑战和可能策略的个人观点。深入了解缺陷工程对电催化剂催化性能的影响将为设计用于水分解和其他可能应用的高效电催化剂指明道路。