Electrocatalysis of Furfural Oxidation Coupled with H2 Evolution via Nickel‐Based Electrocatalysts in Water

Abstract

AbstractElectrocatalytic water splitting has been widely considered as a promising approach to produce clean H2. The anodic half reaction of water splitting, the O2 evolution reaction (OER), is the kinetic bottleneck of the overall process and its product O2 is not of high value. Herein, we report a novel strategy to replace OER with a thermodynamically more favorable anodic reaction, furfural oxidation to 2‐furoic acid. Furfural is one of the dehydration products of biomass and its oxidation product 2‐furoic acid has many industrial applications. A bifunctional electrocatalyst of Ni2P‐derived arrays on nickel foam (Ni2P/Ni/NF) was developed for the integrated electrocatalysis of both furfural oxidation and H2 production. When Ni2P/Ni/NF acts as the electrocatalyst for both anode and cathode, nearly 100 % Faradaic efficiencies for H2 evolution and furfural oxidation were obtained. Such an integrated electrolysis catalyzed by Ni2P/Ni/NF required an applied voltage ≈110 mV smaller than that of pure water splitting to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm−2, together with robust stability. Overall, our novel electrolyzer produced valuable products at both electrodes (H2 at cathode and 2‐furoic acid at anode) and may extend to the coupling of H2 evolution with many other valuable organic oxidation reactions.