High-Entropy Materials as Catalysts for Alcohol and Polyol Electro-oxidation: Advances, Mechanisms, and Future Perspectives
Arslan Hameed, Sanaa Javed, Irsa Tariq, Peng Li, Muhammad Arif Nadeem, Rongchao Jin
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohols and polyols has recently emerged as a compelling alternative to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), offering lower anodic overpotentials and the simultaneous production of hydrogen and value-added chemicals. High-entropy materials (HEMs) including alloys, oxides, hydroxides, and chalcogenides have distinguished themselves as a transformative class of catalysts owing to their configurational entropy, lattice distortion, sluggish diffusion, and cocktail effects. These entropy-driven characteristics stabilize diverse active sites, modulate electronic structures, and promote dynamic redox chemistry, thereby enabling multielectron transfer, C–C bond cleavage, and selective product formation. Unlike conventional Pt-based catalysts that suffer from CO poisoning and limited durability, HEMs integrate multiple elements into simple lattices, delivering enhanced activity, robustness, and tunability. This review presents a comprehensive overview of HEMs for methanol, ethanol, glycerol, ethylene glycol, and benzyl alcohol electro-oxidation. We summarize recent advances in entropy-engineered electrocatalysts, highlight mechanistic insights into adsorption energetics and reaction pathways, and compare their performance against conventional benchmarks. Finally, we identify critical research gaps, including acid-stable HEMs, device-level integration, and mechanistic selectivity, and at the same time provide an outlook on how the entropy-driven design can bridge hydrogen production with sustainable chemical manufacturing.