Formic acid (HCOOH) can be exclusively prepared through
CO2 electroreduction at an industrial current density (0.5
A
cm–2). However, the global annual demand for formic
acid is only ∼1 million tons, far less than the current CO2 emission scale. The exploration of an economical and green
approach to upgrading CO2-derived formic acid is significant.
Here, we report an electrochemical process to convert formic acid
and nitrite into high-valued formamide over a copper catalyst under
ambient conditions, which offers the selectivity from formic acid
to formamide up to 90.0%. Isotope-labeled in situ attenuated total
reflection surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy and quasi
in situ electron paramagnetic resonance results reveal the key C–N
bond formation through coupling *CHO and *NH2 intermediates.
This work offers an electrochemical strategy to upgrade CO2-derived formic acid into high-value formamide.
Electrochemical CO 2 reduction to liquid multi-carbon alcohols provides a promising way for intermittent renewable energy reservation and greenhouse effect mitigation. Cu δ + (0 < δ < 1) species on Cubased electrocatalysts can produce ethanol, but the in situ formed Cu δ + is insufficient and easily reduced to Cu 0 . Here a Cu 2 S 1À x catalyst with abundant Cu δ + (0 < δ < 1) species is designedly synthesized and exhibited an ultralow overpotential of 0.19 V for ethanol production. The catalyst not only delivers an outstanding ethanol selectivity of 86.9 % and a Faradaic efficiency of 73.3 % but also provides a long-term stability of Cu δ + , gaining an economic profit based on techno-economic analysis. The calculation and in situ spectroscopic results reveal that the abundant Cu δ + sites display electron-donating ability, leading to the decrease of the reaction barrier in the potential-determining CÀ C coupling step and eventually making the applied potential close to the theoretical value.
Benefited from the optimized activity of active sites, adsorption energy and the proposed electron transfer property, the CoFe2O4 nanosheet with oxygen vacancies exhibited significantly enhanced water splitting catalytic performance.
Amorphous cobalt-doped MoOx (CMO) nanospheres with a unique core–shell structure have been successfully fabricated via a simple hydrothermal reaction. The CMO exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction.
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