Application of amorphous alloys in catalysis

<p indent="0mm">With economic and population growth, the global demand for energy and the pressure on the environment are rapidly increasing. The over-exploitation and consumption of fossil energy sources have led to a series of problems (such as energy depletion, environmental pollution, and global warming) that seriously endanger the survival and development of humankind. Reducing the utilization of fossil energy sources is the key to achieving carbon neutrality and peak carbon goals. A viable strategy is the development of catalysis, which can produce and store clean, sustainable energy. Different catalytic processes produce sustainable energy sources depending on different reaction mechanisms, but their realization and eventual commercialization rely on the development of high-performance catalysts. Amorphous alloys exhibit a series of excellent mechanical, physical, and chemical properties due to their unique disordered microstructure. Amorphous alloys, as new and efficient catalysts, have a wide range of applications in the field of energy storage and conversion. Compared with crystalline materials, they have the following advantages. (1) Amorphous alloys can adjust their compositional structure within a wide range. (2) Amorphous alloys are isotropic, do not have defects such as grain boundaries and segregation, and have uniform active sites as well as corrosion resistance. (3) Amorphous alloys can be prepared under flexible conditions. (4) Amorphous alloys have a high surface energy as well as a high degree of unsaturated coordination, which enables some chemical reactants and intermediates to be adsorbed on specific sites in an appropriate form. (5) Amorphous alloys have a metastable structure, which is prone to surface reconstruction under extreme physical or chemical conditions, changing from inert species to active-phase species. Amorphous alloys, with their unique structure and performance advantages, make them a catalytic material with great application prospects. This article briefly summarizes the research progress, performance advantages, and application potential of amorphous alloy catalysts. Furthermore, the challenges of amorphous alloy catalysts and their prospects are also summarized.