Liquid Metal Alloy Catalysis - Challenges and Prospects

Significant progress has been made in recent years in the development of liquid metal alloy catalysts. This article provides an overview of the state-of-the-art research pertaining to liquid metal alloy catalysis, including alloy synthesis, reactor design, and theoretical calculations. Different alloy synthesis methods are discussed with a focus on strategies that can achieve colloidal intermetallic structures in liquid metal alloys. Current reactors for liquid metal-based electrocatalytic and thermochemical processes are summarized. The application of theoretical tools, such as machine learning and computational chemistry to further liquid metal alloy design, is discussed. Finally, an outlook on the technological challenges and our perspective on future research opportunities for liquid metal alloy catalysis are presented. This review establishes a systematic discussion on the challenges of liquid alloys catalysis, including the synthesis of alloys, reactor design, material selection, electrocatalytic, and thermocatalytic processes as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools.image