In a typical heterogeneous electrocatalytic reaction, for the given active sites, the electronic structure plays a determining role in electron transfer between the active sites and reactant molecules, which impacts the reaction efficiency. Besides the electronic properties of the electrocatalysts, the reaction interface at which the charge transfer occurs plays an important role in the reaction kinetics. Moreover, the accessibility of the active sites to the reactant molecules also affects the reaction efficiency. However, a well-balanced effective strategy for electronic structure optimization that improves not only the activity but also stability and cost-effectiveness is needed. Besides, a robust model specifically tailored to investigate the kinetics of the electrocatalytic reaction is required to exclude the interference of thermodynamic factors. A feasible characterization technique for probing the complex interfacial process is also required.

To address these remaining challenges in the three aspects above, this thesis proposed the strategies to optimize the electrocatalytic reaction processes as follows:

(1) Tuning the electronic structure of the active sites by engineering coordination environment and introducing strain effect. Specifically, Ni single atom was constructed to engineer the coordination environment, and the electrocatalytic performance with the tuned electronic structure was examined towards hydrazine oxidation reaction. The strain effect was created by introducing Cu single atom to BiOCl substrate, and the optimized electronic structure was investigated;

(2) Optimizing the interfacial HER kinetics targeted by proposing a specific Pt model catalyst with a channel-opening modifier. The interfacial water structure was studied by in situ surface-enhanced Raman technique, and the role of this promoting modifier was elucidated by ab initio molecular dynamic simulation;

(3) Improving the local concentration of CO₂ for electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction with a poly(ionic liquid) modifier, with Au as the model catalyst and the targeted characterization techniques.