Rod-Like Nanostructured Cu–Co Spinel with Rich Oxygen Vacancies for Efficient Electrocatalytic Dechlorination
Jing Wang, Shiying Fan, Xinyong Li, Zhaodong Niu, Zhiyuan Liu, Chunpeng Bai, Jun Duan, Moses O. Tadé, Shaomin Liu
Abstract
Dichloromethane (CH 2 Cl 2 ) hydrodechlorination to methane (CH 4 ) is a promising approach to remove the halogenated contaminants and generate clean energy. In this work, rod-like nanostructured CuCo 2 O 4 spinels with rich oxygen vacancies are designed for highly efficient electrochemical reduction dechlorination of dichloromethane. Microscopy characterizations revealed that the special rod-like nanostructure and rich oxygen vacancies can efficiently enhance surface area, electronic/ionic transport, and expose more active sites. The experimental tests demonstrated that CuCo 2 O 4 -3 with rod-like nanostructures outperformed other morphology of CuCo 2 O 4 spinel nanostructures in catalytic activity and product selectivity. The highest methane production of 148.84 μmol in 4 h with a Faradaic efficiency of 21.61% at −2.94 V (vs SCE) is shown. Furthermore, the density function theory proved oxygen vacancies significantly decreased the energy barrier to promote the catalyst in the reaction and O v -Cu was the main active site in dichloromethane hydrodechlorination. This work explores a promising way to synthesize the highly efficient electrocatalysts, which may be an effective catalyst for dichloromethane hydrodechlorination to methane.