Tuning the Selective Adsorption Site of Biomass on Co3 O4 by Ir Single Atoms for Electrosynthesis

Yuxuan Lu; Tianyang Liu; Chung-Li Dong; Yu-Cheng Huang; Yafei Li; Jun Chen; Yuqin Zou; Shuangyin Wang

doi:10.1002/adma.202007056

Tuning the Selective Adsorption Site of Biomass on Co₃ O₄ by Ir Single Atoms for Electrosynthesis

Adv Mater. 2021 Feb;33(8):e2007056. doi: 10.1002/adma.202007056. Epub 2021 Jan 20.

Authors

Yuxuan Lu¹, Tianyang Liu², Chung-Li Dong³, Yu-Cheng Huang³, Yafei Li², Jun Chen⁴, Yuqin Zou¹, Shuangyin Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Chem/Bio-Sensing and Chemometrics, Provincial Hunan Key Laboratory for Graphene Materials and Devices, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, National Supercomputer Centers in Changsha, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, P. R. China.
² College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210023, P. R. China.
³ Department of Physics, Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan, 25137, P. R. China.
⁴ Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Australian Institute of Innovative Materials, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.

PMID: 33470476
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202007056

Abstract

The electrosynthesis from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is considered a green strategy to achieve biomass-derived high-value chemicals. As the molecular structure of HMF is relatively complicated, understanding the HMF adsorption/catalysis behavior on electrocatalysts is vital for biomass-based electrosynthesis. The electrocatalysis behavior can be modulated by tuning the adsorption energy of the reactive molecules. In this work, the HMF adsorption behavior on spinel oxide, Co₃ O₄ is discovered. Correspondingly, the adsorption energy of HMF on Co₃ O₄ is successfully tuned by decorating with single-atom Ir. It is observed that compared with bare Co₃ O₄ , single-atom-Ir-loaded Co₃ O₄ (Ir-Co₃ O₄ ) can enhance adsorption with the CC groups of HMF. The synergetic adsorption can enhance the overall conversion of HMF on electrocatalysts. With the modulated HMF adsorption, the as-designed Ir-Co₃ O₄ exhibits a record performance (with an onset potential of 1.15 V_RHE ) for the electrosynthesis from HMF.

Keywords: 5-hydroxymethylfurfural; adsorption behavior; electrocatalysts; single atoms; spinel oxide.

Abstract

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