Sustainable Furfural Biomass Feedstocks Electrooxidation toward Value-Added Furoic Acid with Energy-Saving H2 Fuel Production Using Pt-Decorated Co3O4 Nanospheres

Abstract

Here, furfural oxidation was performed to replace the kinetically sluggish O2 evolution reaction (OER). Pt-Co3O4 nanospheres were developed via pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) in a single step for the paired electrocatalysis of an H2 evolution reaction (HER) and furfural oxidation reaction (FOR). The FOR afforded a high furfural conversion (44.2%) with a major product of 2-furoic acid after a 2-h electrolysis at 1.55 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode in a 1.0-M KOH/50-mM furfural electrolyte. The Pt-Co3O4 electrode exhibited a small overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm−2. As an anode and cathode in an electrolyzer system, the Pt-Co3O4 electrocatalyst required only a small applied cell voltage of ∼1.83 V to deliver 10 mA cm−2, compared with that of the pure water electrolyzer (OER∥HER, ∼1.99 V). This study simultaneously realized the integrated production of energy-saving H2 fuel at the cathode and 2-furoic acid at the anode. © 2022 The Authors. Energy & Environmental Materials published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Zhengzhou University.