Cubic CuFe₂O₄ Spinel with Octahedral Fe Active Sites for Electrochemical Dechlorination of 1,2-Dichloroethane

CuFe₂O₄ spinel has been considered as a promising catalyst for the electrochemical reaction, while the nature of the crystal phase on its intrinsic activity and the kind of active site need to be further explored. Herein, the crystal phase-dependent catalytic behavior and the main active sites of CuFe₂O₄ spinel for electrochemical dechlorination of 1,2-dichloroethane are carefully studied based on the combination of experiments and theoretical calculations. Cubic and tetragonal CuFe₂O₄ are successfully prepared by a facile sol-gel method combined with high temperature calcination. Impressively, CuFe₂O₄ with the cubic phase shows a higher activity and ethylene selectivity compared to CuFe₂O₄ with the tetragonal phase, suggesting a significant facilitation of electrocatalytic performance by the cubic crystal structure. Moreover, the octahedral Fe atom on the surface of cubic CuFe₂O₄(311) is the active site responsible to produce ethylene with the energy barrier of 0.40 eV. This work demonstrates the significance of crystal phase engineering for the optimization of electrocatalytic performance and offers an efficient strategy for the development of advanced electrocatalysts.