Sustainable Furfural Biomass Feedstocks Electrooxidation toward Value‐Added Furoic Acid with Energy‐Saving H₂ Fuel Production Using Pt‐Decorated Co₃O₄ Nanospheres

Abstract

Here, furfural oxidation was performed to replace the kinetically sluggish O2 evolution reaction (OER). Pt‐Co3O4 nanospheres were developed via pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) in a single step for the paired electrocatalysis of an H2 evolution reaction (HER) and furfural oxidation reaction (FOR). The FOR afforded a high furfural conversion (44.2%) with a major product of 2‐furoic acid after a 2‐h electrolysis at 1.55 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode in a 1.0‐M KOH/50‐mM furfural electrolyte. The Pt‐Co3O4 electrode exhibited a small overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm−2. As an anode and cathode in an electrolyzer system, the Pt‐Co3O4 electrocatalyst required only a small applied cell voltage of ∼1.83 V to deliver 10 mA cm−2, compared with that of the pure water electrolyzer (OER∥HER, ∼1.99 V). This study simultaneously realized the integrated production of energy‐saving H2 fuel at the cathode and 2‐furoic acid at the anode.

Dual‐laser pulse‐patterned α‐Co(OH)2/rGO heterointerface for accelerated water oxidation and surface phase‐transition via in‐situ Raman spectroscopy

“…OER polarization profiles were obtained using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) at 5 mV/s. All potentials were changed in the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) by implying the Nernst relation 52 . Tafel slope (TS) was attained using the liner curve of Tafel plots (overpotential ( η ) versus log of current density ( j ) plots) derived from the polarization curves.…”

“…All potentials were changed in the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) by implying the Nernst relation. 52 Tafel slope (TS) was attained using the liner curve of Tafel plots (overpotential (η) versus log of current density (j) plots) derived from the polarization curves. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) test was performed at a fixed OER potential between 0.1-10 5 Hz.…”

Electrocatalytic conversion of biomass-derived furan compounds: mechanisms, catalysts and perspectives

“…Similar work on electrocatalytic oxidation of furfural with simultaneous hydrogen precipitation and coupled ORR on cathodic as discussed above were also reported by other researchers. 33,131,133 The above studies on the electrocatalytic oxidation of furfural showed that, the high potential was more favorable for the acquisition of HFN and MA , and the low potential tended to generate FA , and H 2 could be generated simultaneously with the oxidation of furfural by a suitable electrocatalytic electrode.…”

Recent Advancements in Electrochemical Hydrogen Production via Hybrid Water Splitting

“…[188] Besides HMF, furfural electro-oxidation has also been studied in the HWS system, which also involves the oxidation of an aldehyde group. [15,124,128,129,193] For instance, Sun and co-workers synthesized the self-supporting Ni 2 P-derived arrays on nickel foam (Ni 2 P/Ni/NF) for the synchronous electrocatalysis of both HER and furfural oxidation with 2-furoic acid production, requiring only 1.48 V to obtain the current density of 10 mA cm −2 , ≈110 mV smaller than that of water splitting. [129]…”