Issue 42, 2022

Opening the pathway towards a scalable electrochemical semi-hydrogenation of alkynols via earth-abundant metal chalcogenides

Abstract

Electrosynthetic methods are crucial for a future sustainable transformation of the chemical industry. Being an integral part of many synthetic pathways, the electrification of hydrogenation reactions gained increasing interest in recent years. However, for the large-scale industrial application of electrochemical hydrogenations, low-resistance zero-gap electrolysers operating at high current densities and high substrate concentrations, ideally applying noble-metal-free catalyst systems, are required. Because of their conductivity, stability, and stoichiometric flexibility, transition metal sulfides of the pentlandite group have been thoroughly investigated as promising electrocatalysts for electrochemical applications but were not investigated for electrochemical hydrogenations of organic materials. An initial screening of a series of first row transition metal pentlandites revealed promising activity for the electrochemical hydrogenation of alkynols in water. The most active catalyst within the series was then incorporated into a zero-gap electrolyser enabling the hydrogenation of alkynols at current densities of up to 240 mA cm−2, Faraday efficiencies of up to 75%, and an alkene selectivity of up to 90%. In this scalable setup we demonstrate high stability of catalyst and electrode for at least 100 h. Altogether, we illustrate the successful integration of a sustainable catalyst into a scalable zero-gap electrolyser establishing electrosynthetic methods in an application-oriented manner.

Graphical abstract: Opening the pathway towards a scalable electrochemical semi-hydrogenation of alkynols via earth-abundant metal chalcogenides

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
19 aug 2022
Accepted
06 okt 2022
First published
11 okt 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 12461-12468

Opening the pathway towards a scalable electrochemical semi-hydrogenation of alkynols via earth-abundant metal chalcogenides

K. Pellumbi, L. Wickert, J. T. Kleinhaus, J. Wolf, A. Leonard, D. Tetzlaff, R. Goy, J. A. Medlock, K. junge Puring, R. Cao, D. Siegmund and U. Apfel, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 12461 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC04647D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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