Boosting Electrocatalytic Ethylene Epoxidation by Single Atom Modulation
Hanyu Wang, Shuo Wang, Yanpeng Song, Yang Zhao, Zhenyu Li, Yuxiang Shen, Zhangquan Peng, Dunfeng Gao, Guoxiong Wang, Xinhe Bao
Abstract
Abstract The electrochemical synthesis of ethylene oxide (EO) using ethylene and water under ambient conditions presents a low‐carbon alternative to existing industrial production process. Yet, the electrocatalytic ethylene epoxidation route is currently hindered by largely insufficient activity, EO selectivity, and long‐term stability. Here we report a single atom Ru‐doped hollandite structure KIr 4 O 8 (KIrRuO) nanowire catalyst for efficient EO production via a chloride‐mediated ethylene epoxidation process. The KIrRuO catalyst exhibits an EO partial current density up to 0.7 A cm −2 and an EO yield as high as 92.0 %. The impressive electrocatalytic performance towards ethylene epoxidation is ascribed to the modulation of electronic structures of adjacent Ir sites by single Ru atoms, which stabilizes the *CH 2 CH 2 OH intermediate and facilitates the formation of active Cl 2 species during the generation of 2‐chloroethanol, the precursor of EO. This work provides a single atom modulation strategy for improving the reactivity of adjacent metal sites in heterogeneous electrocatalysts.