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Updated: Jun 16, 2025
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Published on: February 19, 2018
High-Dimensional Nb2O5 with NbO6 Octahedra for Efficient Electrocatalytic Upgrading of Methanol to Formate
Xinlin Wang1,2, Chuqian Xiao3, Yuanming Xie4
1State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, Shanghai Environmental Protection Key Laboratory on Environmental Standard and Risk Management of Chemical Pollutants, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, P.R. China.
Abstract:
Facilitating the selective electrochemical oxidation of methanol into value-added formate is essential for electrochemical refining. Here we propose a high-dimensional Nb2O5 on Ni foam (Nb2O5-HD@NF) composite as anode for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) for efficient production of formate. In an electrolyte containing 3 M methanol aqueous solution, the Nb2O5-HD@NF anode requires only 240 mV overpotential to deliver an industrial-level current density of 100 mA cm-2 with a formate Faraday efficiency of 100%. In situ Raman and electrochemical kinetic analyses reveal that the origin of the excellent activity in 3 M methanol electrolyte can be ascribed to the NbO6 octahedra as active sites and the Lewis acid sites on the surface of Nb2O5-HD. This work may pave a way for the design of non-noble metal electrocatalysts with surface acidity engineering for the effective electrocatalytic upgrading of biomass molecules.
