CuFe2O4 spinel has been considered as a promising catalyst for the electrochemical reaction, while the nature of the crystal phase on its intrinsic activity and the kind of active site need to be further explored. Herein, the crystal phase-dependent catalytic behavior and the main active sites of CuFe2O4 spinel for electrochemical dechlorination of 1,2-dichloroethane are carefully studied based on the combination of experiments and theoretical calculations. Cubic and tetragonal CuFe2O4 are successfully prepared by a facile sol-gel method combined with high temperature calcination. Impressively, CuFe2O4 with the cubic phase shows a higher activity and ethylene selectivity compared to CuFe2O4 with the tetragonal phase, suggesting a significant facilitation of electrocatalytic performance by the cubic crystal structure. Moreover, the octahedral Fe atom on the surface of cubic CuFe2O4(311) is the active site responsible to produce ethylene with the energy barrier of 0.40 eV. This work demonstrates the significance of crystal phase engineering for the optimization of electrocatalytic performance and offers an efficient strategy for the development of advanced electrocatalysts.
Keywords: 1,2-dichloroethane; CuFe2O4 spinel; active sites; crystal phase-dependent behavior; electrochemical dechlorination.