Liu Bowen, Wang Genxiang, Feng Xin, Dai Ling, Wen Zhenhai, Ci Suqin
Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Persistent Pollutants Control, National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Heavy Metals Pollutants Control and Resource Utilization and Resources Recycle, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063, Jiangxi, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures, and Fujian Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.
Nanoscale. 2022 Sep 15;14(35):12841-12848. doi: 10.1039/d2nr02689a.
Water electrolysis is a promising technology for efficient hydrogen production, but it has been heavily hindered by the sluggish kinetics and high potential of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Replacing the OER with the glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) at the anode is recognized as a potential strategy to address this issue. In this work, the self-supported electrocatalytic electrode of Cu-CuO nanoclusters on carbon cloth (Cu-CuO/CC) is fabricated for the electrocatalysis of the GOR, which has high activity towards the GOR, reaching 10 mA cm at an applied voltage of 1.21 V, and shows high selectivity for formate production with a faradaic efficiency (FE) of over 80% in a wide potential range. Moreover, a hybrid acid/alkali electrolyzer is assembled by coupling the Cu-CuO/CC anode for the GOR in an alkaline electrolyte with commercial Pt/C as the cathode for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an acid electrolyte. The dual-electrolyte electrolytic cell only requires an applied voltage of 0.59 V to reach 10 mA cm with a FE of ∼100% for H and 97% for formate production. This work provides a facile strategy for the application of glycerol upgradation in energy-saving water electrolysis systems.
水电解是一种很有前景的高效制氢技术，但阳极析氧反应（OER）的缓慢动力学和高电位严重阻碍了该技术的发展。在阳极用甘油氧化反应（GOR）取代OER被认为是解决这一问题的潜在策略。在这项工作中，制备了碳布上的Cu-CuO纳米团簇自支撑电催化电极（Cu-CuO/CC）用于GOR的电催化，该电极对GOR具有高活性，在1.21 V的外加电压下达到10 mA cm ，并且在很宽的电位范围内对甲酸盐生成表现出高选择性，法拉第效率（FE）超过80%。此外，通过将碱性电解质中用于GOR的Cu-CuO/CC阳极与酸性电解质中用于析氢反应（HER）的商业Pt/C阴极耦合，组装了一种混合酸碱电解槽。该双电解质电解槽仅需0.59 V的外加电压即可达到10 mA cm ，氢气生成的FE约为100%，甲酸盐生成的FE为97%。这项工作为甘油升级在节能水电解系统中的应用提供了一种简便策略。
