Wu Zhaohui, Liu Guihao, Song Ziheng, Hu Yihang, Nie Tianqi, Song Yu-Fei
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering Beijing University of Chemical Technology Beijing 100029 P. R. China.
Quzhou Institute for Innovation in Resource Chemical Engineering Quzhou Zhejiang Province 324000 P. R. China.
Small Sci. 2025 Jun 24;5(8):2500132. doi: 10.1002/smsc.202500132. eCollection 2025 Aug.
The low-potential furfural electrooxidation reaction (FFOR) on copper-based catalysts provides a novel pathway to upgrade biomass and produce H simultaneously on anode. Herein, a series of oxide-derived copper catalysts (OD-Cu-x, x represents electroreduction time) with distinct Cu/Cu ratios and residual content of lattice oxygen are successfully constructed by tuning in-situ electroreduction time. When applied for FFOR, the OD-Cu-600 with a Cu/Cu ratio of 83.3% shows the Faradaic efficiency of 96.1% for furoic acid (FA) and 97.4% for H, which can be achieved at a lowest potential of 0.081 V versus RHE at 10 mA cm in continuous 10 cycles, outperforming the state-of-art Cu-based catalysts reported so far. Detailed characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculations prove that the moderate coverage (25% based on DFT models) of Cu(OH) surface species generated by Cu during the electrooxidation process endows the optimal furfural molecule adsorption and activation. Moreover, this potential-dependent coverage of surface OH can promote the kinetics of *H transfer to the Cu surface, allowing the H evolution from the anode. The Cu/Cu ratio (83.8%) and suitable applied potential windows (0 to 0.4 V RHE) are both responsible for the co-production of FA and H with high intrinsic activity and efficient H atom utilization.
铜基催化剂上的低电位糠醛电氧化反应(FFOR)为生物质升级提供了一条新途径,同时在阳极上产生氢气。在此,通过调节原位电还原时间,成功构建了一系列具有不同Cu/Cu比和晶格氧残留量的氧化物衍生铜催化剂(OD-Cu-x,x代表电还原时间)。将其应用于FFOR时,Cu/Cu比为83.3%的OD-Cu-600对糠酸(FA)的法拉第效率为96.1%,对氢气的法拉第效率为97.4%,在连续10个循环中,相对于可逆氢电极(RHE)在10 mA cm时,最低电位为0.081 V即可实现,优于迄今为止报道的最先进的铜基催化剂。详细的表征和密度泛函理论(DFT)计算证明,在电氧化过程中由Cu产生的Cu(OH)表面物种的适度覆盖(基于DFT模型为25%)赋予了最佳的糠醛分子吸附和活化能力。此外,这种表面OH的电位依赖性覆盖可以促进*H向Cu表面转移的动力学,从而使氢气从阳极析出。Cu/Cu比(83.8%)和合适的施加电位窗口(0至0.4 V vs RHE)共同促成了FA和H2的联产,具有高本征活性和高效的H原子利用率。