Efficient electrocatalysis conversion of glycerol to formate in alkaline solution by nickel (oxy)hydroxide supported cobalt nanoneedle arrays

Weimin Cao; Zeru Shen; Jiayi Li; Jingyu Li; Yiying Zhao; Qingran Zhang; Qiang Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.194

Efficient electrocatalysis conversion of glycerol to formate in alkaline solution by nickel (oxy)hydroxide supported cobalt nanoneedle arrays

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Nov 26:682:242-250. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.194. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Weimin Cao¹, Zeru Shen¹, Jiayi Li¹, Jingyu Li¹, Yiying Zhao², Qingran Zhang³, Qiang Liu⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
² School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
³ College of Environmental of Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China. Electronic address: qingran_zhang@tongji.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China. Electronic address: qliu@shu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39616654
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.194

Abstract

Electrochemical oxidation of glycerol into value-added chemicals represents a sustainable approach for not only valorizing biomass resources but also improving the energy efficiency of electrolysis by replacing the kinetically sluggish oxidation of water at the anode. Here, we present a nickel (oxy)hydroxide supported cobalt nanoneedle arrays catalyst (CoNA-NiOH/NF-2) for effective oxidation of glycerol. The loaded Co(OH)₂ forms more oxygen defects, increases the active sites, and enhances the performance of glycerol oxidation. The CoNA-NiOH/NF-2 catalyst significantly reduces energy consumption by achieving a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 at a low voltage of 1.22 V vs. RHE, and 100 mA cm^-2 at 1.42 V vs. RHE, which is approximately 240 mV lower than oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Additionally, the Faraday efficiency of formate generation reached 98 %. The growth of renewable energy sources will greatly benefit from this strategy, which calls for replacing anodic OER with biomass oxidation.

Keywords: Formate; Glycerol oxidation; Oxygen vacancy; Synergistic effect; Transition metal hydroxides.