Energy-saving H₂ Generation Coupled with Oxidative Alcohol Refining over Bimetallic Phosphide Ni₂ P-CoP Junction...

The realization of large-scale H₂ production from electrocatalytic water splitting is severely impeded by the kinetically sluggish and economically less viable anodic oxygen evolution reaction. Here, an efficient strategy was established for the concurrent H₂ production and oxidative alcohols refining into value-added formate by utilizing self-supported Ni₂ P-CoP bifunctional electrocatalysts. Benefiting from high intrinsic activity, abundant active sites, and synergistic promoting effects of bimetallic phosphides, the constructed two-electrode electrolyzer required a cell voltage of around 1.3 V to achieve 10 mA cm^-2 , which is more than 200 mV lower than that of pure water splitting. Moreover, simultaneous productions of H₂ with near-unity conversion efficiency and formate at high faradaic efficiencies of 99.8 and 89.6 % oxidatively produced from methanol and glycerol, respectively, were achieved with excellent durability. This work presents a general and economic approach toward the fabrication of cost-effective electrocatalysts for energy-efficient and profitable large-scale renewable energy integration.