Zn‐Organic Batteries for the Semi‐Hydrogenation of Biomass Aldehyde Derivatives and Concurrently Enhanced Power Output

Abstract

Electricity generation and chemical productions are both critically important for the sustainable development of modern civilization. Here, a novel bifunctional Zn-organic battery has been established for the concurrent enhanced electricity output and semihydrogenations of a series of biomass aldehyderivatives, for the high value-added chemical syntheses. Among them, the typical Zn-furfural (FF) battery equipped with Cu foil-supported edge-enriched Cu nanosheets as cathodic electrocatalyst (Cu NS/Cu foil), provides a maximum current density and power density of 14.6 mA cm À 2 and 2.00 mW cm À 2 , respectively, and in the meantime, produces high value product, furfural alcohol (FAL). The Cu NS/Cu foil catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance of � 93.5 % conversion ratio and � 93.1 % selectivity for FF semi-hydrogenation at a low potential of -1.1 V vs. Ag/AgCl by using H 2 O as H source, and shows impressive performance for various biomass aldehyderivatives semi-hydrogenation.

Reducing the Charging Voltage of a Zn–Air Battery to 1.6 V Enabled by Redox Radical-Mediated Biomass Oxidation

“…To date, most of the research is focused on coupling electrocatalytic BOR with a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); − nevertheless, little effort has been devoted to developing the utilization of BOR in metal–air batteries. Recently, Xu et al reported Zn–furfural batteries equipped with an edge-enriched Cu nanosheets/Cu cathode and a Zn anode, which delivered a peak power output of 2.0 mW cm –2 and produced furfural alcohol as the value-added product on discharging …”

“…Recently, Xu et al reported Zn−furfural batteries equipped with an edge-enriched Cu nanosheets/Cu cathode and a Zn anode, which delivered a peak power output of 2.0 mW cm −2 and produced furfural alcohol as the value-added product on discharging. 29 Herein, we report a novel rechargeable aqueous ZAB by using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyloxyl (TEMPO) and glucose as electrolyte additives to significantly lower the charging voltage by ∼1.6 V using a commercial carbon cloth (CC) electrode. Upon charging, the oxidation of the dissolved TEMPO forming the oxoammonium cation (TEMPO + ) mediates the oxidation of glucose to generate value-added products, and the TEMPO + is reduced to hydroxylamine (TEMPOH).…”