Energy‐saving H<sub>2</sub> Generation Coupled with Oxidative Alcohol Refining over Bimetallic Phosphide Ni<sub>2</sub>P−CoP Junction Bifunctional Electrocatalysts
Dan Wu, Jie Hao, Weilin Wang, Yu Yan, Xian‐Zhu Fu, Jing‐Li Luo
Abstract
Abstract The realization of large‐scale H 2 production from electrocatalytic water splitting is severely impeded by the kinetically sluggish and economically less viable anodic oxygen evolution reaction. Here, an efficient strategy was established for the concurrent H 2 production and oxidative alcohols refining into value‐added formate by utilizing self‐supported Ni 2 P−CoP bifunctional electrocatalysts. Benefiting from high intrinsic activity, abundant active sites, and synergistic promoting effects of bimetallic phosphides, the constructed two‐electrode electrolyzer required a cell voltage of around 1.3 V to achieve 10 mA cm −2 , which is more than 200 mV lower than that of pure water splitting. Moreover, simultaneous productions of H 2 with near‐unity conversion efficiency and formate at high faradaic efficiencies of 99.8 and 89.6 % oxidatively produced from methanol and glycerol, respectively, were achieved with excellent durability. This work presents a general and economic approach toward the fabrication of cost‐effective electrocatalysts for energy‐efficient and profitable large‐scale renewable energy integration.