Electronic Modulation Induced by Ni‐VN Heterojunction Reinforces Electrolytic Hydrogen Evolution Coupled with Biomass Upgrade
Wanqi Jia, Bowen Liu, Rui Gong, Xinxin Bian, Shichao Du, Siyu Ma, Zichen Song, Zhiyu Ren, Zhimin Chen
Abstract
Abstract The renewable electricity‐driven hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) coupled with biomass oxidation is a powerful avenue to maximize the energy efficiency and economic feedback, but challenging. Herein, porous Ni‐VN heterojunction nanosheets on nickel foam (Ni‐VN/NF) are constructed as a robust electrocatalyst to simultaneously catalyze HER and 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural electrooxidation reaction (HMF EOR). Benefiting from the surface reconstruction of Ni‐VN heterojunction during the oxidation process, the derived NiOOH‐VN/NF energetically catalyzes HMF into 2,5‐furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), yielding the high HMF conversion (>99%), FDCA yield (99%), and Faradaic efficiency (>98%) at the lower oxidation potential along with the superior cycling stability. Ni‐VN/NF is also surperactive for HER, exhibiting an onset potential of ≈0 mV and Tafel slope of 45 mV dec −1 . The integrated Ni‐VN/NF||Ni‐VN/NF configuration delivers a compelling cell voltage of 1.426 V at 10 mA cm −2 for the H 2 O‐HMF paired electrolysis, about 100 mV lower than that for water splitting. Theoretically, for Ni‐VN/NF, the superiority in HMF EOR and HER is mainly dominated by the local electronic distribution at the heterogenous interface, which accelerates the charge transfer and optimize the adsorption of reactants/intermediates by modulating the d‐band center, therefore being an advisable thermodynamic and kinetic process.