As primary energy demands will double within the next two decades, energy storage and conversion will be among the most significant concerns of the current century. Promising advanced technologies such as fuel cells, water electrolysis, metal–air batteries, and CO2 to fuel conversion have been recognized as clean energy-converting devices owing to their low cost and high efficiency. The core of these energy conversion technologies is some important electrochemical reactions that have been applied for energy conversions, which include fuel oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells, ORR and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in metal-air batteries, as well as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and OER in water splitting. However, the implement of these advanced technologies is still limited due to the requirement of active and durable electrocatalysts for above energy conversion reaction. This presentation mainly focuses on the recent progress of photo-responsive electrodes as electrocatalysts for improving the photoelectrocatalytic activity of energy conversion reactions under light irradiation. It involves the design and the architecting of advanced nanomaterials for light harvesting and enhanced photoelectrocatalytic performances of oxidation and reduction reactions. Different routes to design of semiconducting supports and construct advanced photoelectrocatalytic electrode material systems, will be discussed. Finally, the prospects of the photo-responsive electrodes for energy conversion reactions are also addressed briefly.
