Book excerpt: Many important industrial chemical processes rely heavily on catalysis and so researchers are always on the lookout for alternative catalytic materials that may improve existing processes or lead to new ones. Families of alternative catalytic materials currently being investigated include the carbides, nitrides and phosphides as well as amorphous boron catalysts. The addition of carbon, nitrogen or phosphorous to transition metals and the creation of boron-transition metal alloys leads to catalytic materials that have interesting properties, with applications in a range of different reactions, including electrocatalysis. This book provides a comprehensive account of the preparation, characterisation and application of these catalytic materials. It is an important reference for researchers and industrialists working in heterogeneous catalysis and materials chemistry.