A review on recent development of robust electrocatalysts enable unlocking efficiency of water splitting.

The problem of renewable energy has been gained great interest owing to power demand, environmental issues and increasing oil costs. Among the renewable energy sources, electrocatalytic water hydrolysis in energy conversion is of current interest and alternative for excessive consumption of fossil fuels. The nitrogen doping into robust electrocatalysts gained great interest in energy conversion by regulating the electron density of active sites to enhance the electrocatalysts efficiency. Also, conducting polymers based nanomaterials materialized as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions owing to specific composition. Herein, the recent progress of nitrogen enriched electrocatalysts and the current challenges with future investigations to support in-depth research efforts in this potential area have been disclosed. • This review focuses an update of efficient N-enriched electrocatalysts with simple, low cost fabrication process. • N-incorporation modulated the electron densities of exposed active sites to enhance the electrocatalytic efficiency. • The electrocatalysts with interfacial heterostructures enhanced the conductivity after N doping. • The recent progress of N-enriched catalysts and correlation of electronic structure with performance have been updated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]