Recent Progress in Intercalation Chemistry of Transition Metal Oxides for Electrocatalytic Applications

Intercalation chemistry describes the process by which a guest is intercalated into a host to form an intercalated compound. Intercalation chemistry, as an effective method to modify structures, has been intensively studied in recent centuries for electrocatalysis-based energy storage and conversion devices. Particularly, research on transition metal oxides (TMOs) has become an emerging frontier in intercalation chemistry because of their tunability in structure and composition. Nonetheless,confusions remain in the discovery of indefinable intercalation mechanism and unexplained properties change. In this paper, a first-ever in-depth description of the intercalation mechanism, which directly determines the potential of properties and applications,will be presented. We discuss the major synthesis strategies for TMOs intercalation compounds. We summarize the recent advances for electrocatalytic applications of intercalated TMOs. Moreover,this review will be concluded with a section on the future opportunities and challenges for intercalation of TMOs.