Highly efficient ethylene production via electrocatalytic hydrogenation of acetylene under mild conditions

Suheng Wang; Kelechi Uwakwe; Liang Yu; Jinyu Ye; Yuezhou Zhu; Jingting Hu; Ruixue Chen; Zheng Zhang; Zhiyou Zhou; Jianfeng Li; Zhaoxiong Xie; Dehui Deng

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-27372-8

Highly efficient ethylene production via electrocatalytic hydrogenation of acetylene under mild conditions

Nat Commun. 2021 Dec 6;12(1):7072. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-27372-8.

Authors

Suheng Wang^#^{1

2}, Kelechi Uwakwe^#^{2

3}, Liang Yu^{4

5}, Jinyu Ye¹, Yuezhou Zhu¹, Jingting Hu^{1

2}, Ruixue Chen^{1

2}, Zheng Zhang^{1

2}, Zhiyou Zhou¹, Jianfeng Li¹, Zhaoxiong Xie¹, Dehui Deng^{6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China. lyu@dicp.ac.cn.
⁵ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. lyu@dicp.ac.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China. dhdeng@dicp.ac.cn.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China. dhdeng@dicp.ac.cn.
⁸ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. dhdeng@dicp.ac.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Renewable energy-based electrocatalytic hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene (E-HAE) under mild conditions is an attractive substitution to the conventional energy-intensive industrial process, but is challenging due to its low Faradaic efficiency caused by competitive hydrogen evolution reaction. Herein, we report a highly efficient and selective E-HAE process at room temperature and ambient pressure over the Cu catalyst. A high Faradaic efficiency of 83.2% for ethylene with a current density of 29 mA cm^-2 is reached at -0.6 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode. In-situ spectroscopic characterizations combined with first-principles calculations reveal that electron transfer from the Cu surface to adsorbed acetylene induces preferential adsorption and hydrogenation of the acetylene over hydrogen formation, thus enabling a highly selective E-HAE process through the electron-coupled proton transfer mechanism. This work presents a feasible route for high-efficiency ethylene production from E-HAE.

Grants and funding

91845106/National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)