Allying cobalt nanoclusters with carbon nanofibers for selectively electrocatalytic hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehyde with water as hydrogen source
The electrocatalytic hydrogenation of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes has attracted significant attention, yet the design of electrocatalysts with selective adsorption over CC or CO bond remaining a challenging task. In this study, the Co nanoclusters anchored onto the nitrogen-doped porous carbon nano...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Materials Today Catalysis |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949754X25000171 |
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| Summary: | The electrocatalytic hydrogenation of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes has attracted significant attention, yet the design of electrocatalysts with selective adsorption over CC or CO bond remaining a challenging task. In this study, the Co nanoclusters anchored onto the nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers were elaborately fabricated for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogenation. A kinetically driven mono-micelle-oriented self-assembly method was applied to synthesize the polymer nanofibers as the accommodation for Co2 +. The stepwise pyrolysis of Co2+/polymer nanofibers with dicyandiamide yielded the evenly distributed Co nanoclusters with an average size of ∼4 nm over the nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers. Benefited from the high activity of the Co nanoclusters and their rapid electron communication with the nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers, this electrocatalyst demonstrated excellent performance in the selectively electrocatalytic hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde to hydrocinnamaldehyde, achieving a high selectivity of 90.9 % and a conversion of 68.2 % at 12 mA cm−2. The further in-situ spectroscopy analysis and density functional theory calculations revealed the more preferred adsorption of CC bond and easier water dissociation to give the active H atoms over the Co nanoclusters, which shed light on the hydrogenation mechanism over this electrocatalyst. Our study can provide a new insight in catalyst design for electrocatalytic hydrogenation reaction. |
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| ISSN: | 2949-754X |