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Updated: Jan 28, 2026
A Method to Manipulate Surface Tension of a Liquid Metal via Surface Oxidation and Reduction
Published on: January 26, 2016
Surface engineering in PbS via partial oxidation: towards an advanced electrocatalyst for reduction of levulinic acid
Haoran Wu1,2, Jinliang Song1, Chao Xie1,2
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science , CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics , CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences , Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190 , China . Email: songjl@iccas.ac.cn ;
Abstract:
Development of mild and efficient strategies for biomass conversion is of great significance, and design of advanced catalysts is crucial for biomass valorization. Herein, we designed PbS-based electrocatalysts through a surface engineering strategy via partial oxidation, and the degree of surface oxidation of PbS to PbSO4 could be easily tuned by calcination temperature. It was discovered that the prepared electrocatalysts could efficiently catalyze reduction of biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) using water as the hydrogen source. Especially, the electrocatalyst calcined at 400 °C (PbS-400) showed outstanding performance with a current density of 13.5 mA cm-2 and a GVL faradaic efficiency of 78.6%, which was far higher than the best results reported up to date. Moreover, GVL was the only product from LA reduction, indicating the excellent selectivity. Mechanism investigation showed that LA was converted through electrocatalytic hydrogenation of carbonyl groups of LA and subsequent intramolecular esterification.
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