Water electrolysis powered by renewable energy sources represents a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way of producing “green” hydrogen that can be used to decarbonize the power and transport sectors as well as industry. In this presentation, I will show our recent effort to developing advanced electrocatalysts for efficient and durable hydrogen production. Firstly, advanced platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts consisting of either nanoclusters or single-atoms will be presented [1-4], with an aim to reduce the utilization of precious and scarce PGM without compromising the electrocatalytic performance. In the second section, I will show our recent work on seawater electrolysis. We have demonstrated that coupling the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with small molecule oxidation reaction taking place at the anode enables the alkaline-saline water electrolysis to occur at a high current density without the unfavourable, interfering CER [5,6]. For example, using bifunctional carbon paper supported Co-Ni-P nanowires (Co-Ni-P/CP) as the cathode and anode, we have accomplished hydrogen production in alkaline-saline-hydrazine electrolyte at 500 mA cm-2 with a small cell voltage of only 0.533 V and good catalytic stability of 80 h with minimal degradation [5]. 
References:
[1] J. Y. Xu, J. J. Li, Z. Lian, A. Araujo, Y. Li, B. Wei, Z. P. Yu, O. Bandarchuk, I. Amorim, V. Tileli, B. Li, L. Liu, ACS Catal. 2021, 11, 3402
[2] Z. P. Yu, C. W. Si, F. J. Escobar-Bedia, J. Y. Xu, M. J. Sabater, I. Amorim, A. Araujo, J. L. Faria, B. Li, P. Concepcion, L. Liu, Chem. Eng. J. under review
[3] Z. Yu, Y. Li, A. Torres-Pinto, A. P. LaGrow, V. M. Diaconescu, L. Simonelli, M. J. Sampaio, O. Bondarchuk, I. Amorim, A. Araujo, A. M. T. Silva, C. G. Silva, J. L. Faria, L. Liu, Appl. Catal. B, under revision  
[4] Z. Yu, C. W. Si, A. P. LaGrow, Z. Tai, W. A. Caliebe, A. Tayal, M. J. Sampaio, J. P. S. Sousa, I. Amorim, A. Araujo, L. Meng, J. L. Faria, J. Xu, B. Li, L. Liu, Appl. Catal. B submitted.
[5] Z. Yu, J. Xu, L. Meng, L. Liu, J. Mater. Chem. A 2021, 9, 22248.
[6] Z. Yu, Y. Li, V. M. Diaconescu, L. Simonelli, J. Ruiz, I. Amorim, A. Araujo, L. Meng, J. L. Faria, L. Liu, Adv. Funct. Mater. Submitted.

Lifeng Liu (Researcher ID: A-2522-2012, Orcid ID: 0000-0003-2732-7399) received his Bachelor degree in Applied Physics from Beijing Jiaotong University (2001), and both his Master (2004) and PhD (2007) degrees in Condensed Matter Physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (MPI-Halle) in 2007, first working as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a staff scientist, under the supervision of the late Prof. Ulrich Goesele. He started his independent research career in 2008 and became a Group Leader in 2009 at MPI-Halle. In 2011, he moved to the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) and set up a research group there, where his research now focuses on the development of new materials for use in electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices including electrolyzers, rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors, and photoelectrochemical cells. Lifeng Liu has been actively working on nanomaterials and nanostructures since 2002, and has published 170+ scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals and filed 3 patents by far. He received several awards and honors such as the FCT Investigator Grant 2014, Young Researcher Prize of the Portuguese Electrochemical Society 2015, and the Emerging Investigator 2019 by the RSC journal “Chemical Communications”. He is now the Editorial Board Members of Advances in Nano Research, Materials Today Energy, Materials Futures and Applied Research.