Amorphous alloys for electrocatalysis: The significant role of the amorphous alloy structure

Amorphous alloys, also known as metallic glasses, are solid metallic materials having long-range disordered atomic structures. Compared to crystalline alloys, amorphous alloys not only have metallic characters, but also possess several distinct properties associated to the amorphous structure, such as isotropy, composition flexibility, unsaturated surface, etc. As a result, amorphous alloys offer a class of highly promising materials for catalyzing electrochemical reactions. In this minireview, the preparation, characterization and electrocatalytic performances of a variety of metallic amorphous alloy materials are summarized. The influences of the amorphous alloy structure on different electrochemical reactions are discussed. Finally, a summary on the advantages and challenges of amorphous alloys in electrocatalysis is provided, along with some perspectives about the future research directions.