Rod-Like Nanostructured Cu-Co Spinel with Rich Oxygen Vacancies for Efficient Electrocatalytic Dechlorination.

Dichloromethane (CHCl) hydrodechlorination to methane (CH) is a promising approach to remove the halogenated contaminants and generate clean energy. In this work, rod-like nanostructured CuCoO spinels with rich oxygen vacancies are designed for highly efficient electrochemical reduction dechlorination of dichloromethane. Microscopy characterizations revealed that the special rod-like nanostructure and rich oxygen vacancies can efficiently enhance surface area, electronic/ionic transport, and expose more active sites. The experimental tests demonstrated that CuCoO-3 with rod-like nanostructures outperformed other morphology of CuCoO spinel nanostructures in catalytic activity and product selectivity. The highest methane production of 148.84 μmol in 4 h with a Faradaic efficiency of 21.61% at -2.94 V (vs SCE) is shown. Furthermore, the density function theory proved oxygen vacancies significantly decreased the energy barrier to promote the catalyst in the reaction and O-Cu was the main active site in dichloromethane hydrodechlorination. This work explores a promising way to synthesize the highly efficient electrocatalysts, which may be an effective catalyst for dichloromethane hydrodechlorination to methane.