Trimetallic RhNiFe Phosphide Nanosheets for Electrochemical Reforming of Ethanol

Abstract

Electrochemical small-molecule oxidation-boosted water electrolysis has proven to be an energy-saving strategy for electrochemical hydrogen (H2) production. Herein, trimetallic RhNiFe phosphide nanosheets on nickel foam (RhNiFe-P/NF) with high electrocatalytic activity are synthesized for constructing a bifunctional electrocatalyst toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). Ultrathin RhNiFe-P nanosheets vertically grow on the surface of the three-dimensional (3D) nickel network, and the thickness of the RhNiFe-P nanosheets is only 1.5 nm. The introduction of Rh atoms in RhNiFe-P/NF can regulate the electronic structure and reduce adsorption energy to elevate the electrocatalytic activity. Benefiting from the excellent bifunctional electrocatalytic property of RhNiFe-P/NF, the corresponding two-electrode ethanol device displays a low cell voltage (1.42 V), smaller than that of traditional devices on water electrolysis (1.61 V) at 10 mA cm–2. Meanwhile, electrochemical reforming of ethanol can decrease catalytic voltage in H2 production and generate highly valuable potassium acetate as a byproduct.

Strain and Shell Thickness Engineering in Pd3Pb@Pt Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Ethanol Upgrading Coupled with Hydrogen Production

“…c) Comparison of recent electrolysis performances of small molecule oxidation coupled with hydrogen production in a two‐electrode electrolyzer. [ 52–66 ] The materials indicated on the bars are the catalysts used for the corresponding small molecule oxidation reaction.…”

“…Notably, the Pd 3 Pb@2.9%Pt demonstrated promising activity for the hybrid electrolyzer system, with cell voltages as low as 0.75 V required to reach current densities of 10 mA cm −2 . In contrast, a conventional alkaline electrolysis cell assembled with 1 m KOH as the electrolyte and [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] The materials indicated on the bars are the catalysts used for the corresponding small molecule oxidation reaction.…”

“…b) LSVs of the cells equipped with Pt/C, Pd/C, Pd 3 Pb, and Pd 3 Pb@2.9%Pt as both anode and cathode catalysts in 1 m KOH with 1 m ethanol solution, and equipped with IrO 2 as anode and Pt/C as the cathode in 1 m KOH solution. c) Comparison of recent electrolysis performances of small molecule oxidation coupled with hydrogen production in a two-electrode electrolyzer [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66]. The materials indicated on the bars are the catalysts used for the corresponding small molecule oxidation reaction.…”

Energy-efficient hydrogen production coupled with simultaneous electrosynthesis of acetate over a mesoporous OsRh film

“…31 Among them, the oxyphilic character of Rh makes it show signicant advantages in the selective electro-oxidation of alcohol. [32][33][34] Therefore, Os-Rh bimetallic electrocatalysts are expected to be promising alternatives for the co-electrolysis of water and ethanol. In addition, another important approach to improve catalytic performance is constructing a self-supported mesoporous structure, which can expose abundant active sites and facilitate charge/mass transfer for electrolysis.…”

Hierarchical Ni2P/Zn–Ni–P nanosheet array for efficient energy-saving hydrogen evolution and hydrazine oxidation

“…More recently, many thermodynamically favorable and energy-saving electro-oxidation reactions, such as alcoholoxidation, 26 hydrazine-oxidation, 25,27 urea-oxidation, 28 organic small molecule oxidation and so on, 29,30 have been used instead of OER to obtain highly puried hydrogen. Among them, the hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR, N 2 H 4 + 4OH − / N 2 + 4H 2 O + 4e − ) has an ultralow overpotential (−0.33 V vs. RHE) and could be an alternative reaction to replace OER as a promising energy saving method.…”