Nickel iron diselenide for highly efficient and selective electrocatalytic conversion of methanol to formate

The electro-oxidation of methanol to formate is an interesting example of the potential use of renewable energies to add value to a biosourced chemical commodity. Additionally, methanol electro-oxidation can replace the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction when coupled to hydrogen evolution or to the...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Li, Junshan, Xing, Congcong, Zhang, Yu|||0009-0006-6836-9500, Zhang, Ting, Spadaro, Maria Chiara, Wu, Qianbao, Yi, Yunan, He, Shenglan, Llorca Piqué, Jordi|||0000-0002-7447-9582, Arbiol, Jordi, Cabot, Andreu, Cui, Chunhua
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/352755
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/352755
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.202006623
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Electrochemistry
Metanol
Electroquímica
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Eficiència energètica
Descripción
Sumario:The electro-oxidation of methanol to formate is an interesting example of the potential use of renewable energies to add value to a biosourced chemical commodity. Additionally, methanol electro-oxidation can replace the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction when coupled to hydrogen evolution or to the electroreduction of other biomass-derived intermediates. But the cost-effective realization of these reaction schemes requires the development of efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts. Here, a noble metal-free catalyst, Ni1-xFexSe2 nanorods, with a high potential for an efficient and selective methanol conversion to formate is demonstrated. At its optimum composition, Ni0.75Fe0.25Se2, this diselenide is able to produce 0.47 mmol cm-2 h-1 of formate at 50 mA cm-2 with a Faradaic conversion efficiency of 99%. Additionally, this noble-metal-free catalyst is able to continuously work for over 50 000 s with a minimal loss of efficiency, delivering initial current densities above 50 mA cm-2 and 2.2 A mg-1 in a 1.0 m KOH electrolyte with 1.0 m methanol at 1.5 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. This work demonstrates the highly efficient and selective methanol-to-formate conversion on Ni-based noble-metal-free catalysts, and more importantly it shows a very promising example to exploit the electrocatalytic conversion of biomass-derived chemicals.