Cu³⁺/Ni³⁺ Dual Active Sites for High-Voltage Driven Electrocatalytic Production of 2,5-Furanedicarboxylic acid

Abstract

High voltage is key to achieving large-scale production of 2,5-furanedicarboxylic acid (FDCA), and predicts the future application potential of electrocatalysis technology in biomass chemical engineering. However, the high voltage in the electrocatalytic system severely leads to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), thereby reducing the selectivity and Faraday efficiency (FE) of FDCA. In this work, Cu-Ni3S2 was successfully fabricated for efficient oxidation of HMF to FDCA, achieving desirable Faraday efficiency (FE) at high voltage. The synergistic action of Cu3+ and Ni3+ species effectively inhibited OER, and further achieved 100% selectivity and FE of FDCA production at high voltage of 1.55 VRHE, which exceeds the operating voltage of the reported Ni3S2 system. Therefore, this work provides a new insight in the application of Ni3S2 catalysts at high voltage, advancing the transformation of biomass-derived platform compounds into high-value chemicals.