Directional editing of self-supported nanoarray electrode for adaptive paired-electrolysis

Li Liu; Yingchun He; Dong-Dong Ma; Xin-Tao Wu; Qi-Long Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.130

Directional editing of self-supported nanoarray electrode for adaptive paired-electrolysis

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jun 15:640:423-433. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.130. Epub 2023 Feb 28.

Authors

Li Liu¹, Yingchun He¹, Dong-Dong Ma², Xin-Tao Wu³, Qi-Long Zhu⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, China; Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China, Fuzhou 350108, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: madong@fjirsm.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, China; Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China, Fuzhou 350108, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, China; Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China, Fuzhou 350108, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: qlzhu@fjirsm.ac.cn.

PMID: 36870218
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.130

Abstract

Anodic oxidation assisted hydrogen production under mild conditions powered by renewable electricity represents a sustainable approach to energy conversion systems. Here, we fabricated a versatile and universal self-supported nanoarray platform that can be intelligently edited to achieve adaptive electrocatalysis for alcohol oxidation reactions and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The obtained self-supported nanoarray electrocatalysts exhibit excellent catalytic activity due to the integration of multiple merits of rich nanointerface-reconstruction and self-supported hierarchical structures. Particularly, the membrane-free pair-electrolysis system coupling HER and ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR) required an applied voltage of only 1.25 V to drive the current density of 10 mA cm^-2, which is about 510 mV lower than that of the overall water splitting, showing the capability to simultaneously produce H₂ and formate with high Faradic efficiency and stability. This work demonstrates a catalytic self-supported nanoarray platform for energy-efficient production of high-purity H₂ and value-added chemicals.

Keywords: Adaptive paired-electrolysis; Alcohol oxidation reaction; Formic acid; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Self-supported catalytic platform.