The research team led by Prof. Liu Dong of Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research (SIAR), the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), collaborating with the team led by Prof. Gao Peng of Hangzhou Normal University, has made new advances in electrochemical semi-hydrogenation (ECSH) of alkynes by revealing the key part the interfacial water structure plays in ECSH of alkynes when the performance of ESCH is changed through altering the structure of interfacial water.

The study was published in ACS Catalysis and Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers with a title of Unraveling the Role of Interfacial Water Structure in Electrochemical Semi-hydrogenation of Alkynes and Regulating Interfacial Water Structure by Tensile Strain to Boost Electrochemical Semi-hydrogenation of Alkynes respectively. Dr. Ma Jun is the co-first author and Prof. Liu Dong is the co-author.

Electrochemical semi-hydrogenation of alkynes to alkenes (Image by Zhu Kaili, et al.)

Selective semi-hydrogenation of alkynes to alkenes is an important process for industrial production. ESCH that directly extracts hydrogen from proton-containing solvents is an ideal plan for the process. How to achieve both high activity and selectivity of the process, however, remained a great challenge until the research team unraveled the role of the interfacial water structure in ECSH by employing in situ Raman spectroscopy measurements combined with theoretical calculations after they designed ultrathin PdFe nanosheets (NSs) with a surface plasmon property as the catalyst.

In addition, the researchers obtained PdCu icosahedrons with a surface tensile strained facet and improved activity and selectivity of ECSH, which offers a new strategy to design highly effective, selective and durable ECSH catalysts by regulating the interfacial water structure.

Paper Link:

https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.2c00430

https://doi.org/10.1039/D2QI00767C