Boosting the alkaline hydrogen evolution and oxidation reaction (HER/HOR) kinetics is vital to practicing the renewable hydrogen cycle in alkaline media. Recently, intensive research has demonstrated that interface engineering is of critical significance for improving the performance of heterostructured electrocatalysts particularly toward the electrochemical reactions involving multiple reaction intermediates like alkaline hydrogen electrocatalysis, and the research advances also bring substantial non-trivial fundamental insights accordingly. Herein, we review the current status of interface engineering with respect to developing efficient heterostructured electrocatalysts for alkaline HER and HOR. Two major subjects—how interface engineering promotes the reaction kinetics and what fundamental insights interface engineering has brought into alkaline HER and HOR—are discussed. Specifically, heterostructured electrocatalysts with abundant interfaces have shown substantially accelerated alkaline hydrogen electrocatalysis kinetics owing to the synergistic effect from different components, which could balance the adsorption/desorption behaviors of the intermediates at the interfaces. Meanwhile, interface engineering can effectively tune the electronic structures of the active sites via electronic interaction, interfacial bonding, and lattice strain, which would appropriately optimize the binding energy of targeted intermediates like hydrogen. Furthermore, the confinement effect is critical for delivering high durability by sustaining high density of active sites. At last, our own perspectives on the challenges and opportunities toward developing efficient heterostructured electrocatalysts for alkaline hydrogen electrocatalysis are provided.

促进碱性析氢和氧化反应 (HER/HOR) 动力学对于在碱性介质中实施可再生氢循环至关重要。最近，大量研究表明，界面工程对于提高异质结构电催化剂的性能具有至关重要的意义，特别是对于涉及多种反应中间体的电化学反应，如碱性氢电催化，研究进展也相应地带来了实质性的重要基础见解。在此，我们回顾了界面工程在开发用于碱性 HER 和 HOR 的高效异质结构电催化剂方面的现状。讨论了两个主要主题——界面工程如何促进反应动力学以及界面工程为碱性 HER 和 HOR 带来了哪些基本见解。具体而言，由于不同组分的协同作用，具有丰富界面的异质结构电催化剂显示出显着加速的碱性氢电催化动力学，这可以平衡中间体在界面处的吸附/解吸行为。同时，界面工程可以通过电子相互作用、界面键合和晶格应变有效地调整活性位点的电子结构，从而适当优化氢等目标中间体的结合能。此外，限制效应对于通过维持高密度活性位点来提供高耐用性至关重要。最后，我们对开发用于碱性氢电催化的高效异质结构电催化剂的挑战和机遇提出了自己的看法。