Recently, a research team led by Prof. Dong Liu from Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research, University of Science and Technology of China, has successfully developed efficient electrocatalytic biomass valorization. This work entitled Highly efficient electrocatalytic biomass valorization over a perovskite-derived nickel phosphide catalyst was published in Nanoscale Horizons.

Electrocatalytic oxidation is a significant but challenging carbon-neutral route for biomass valorization. Nevertheless, it usually requires highly efficient and robust electrocatalysts. As one of the most important biomass-derived platform molecules, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) can be oxidized to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), which can be used to replace petrochemical based terephthalic acid to produce degradable plastic. Herein, the researchers for the first time reported a binder-free phosphorus-engineered perovskite-based catalyst grown on nickel foam via a hydrothermal-phosphorization strategy as a cost-effective and highly efficient ECO catalyst to replace the inefficient and low-value oxygen evolution reaction at ambient conditions. 

The optimized phosphorus-engineered perovskite-derived catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic oxidation activity for the conversion of HMF to FDCA, which affords an almost 100% yield and >90% faradaic efficiency using water as an oxygen source. In addition, in situ Raman tests have shown that the high valence NiOOH species is considered to be the real active site. 

This strategy is expected to open new prospects for designing highly efficient and low-cost nonprecious metal electrocatalysts for heterogeneous electrocatalytic oxidation reactions.

Paper Link：https://doi.org/10.1039/d2nh00391k