Más allá de los sitios activos: ingeniería del agua interfacial con Ni-WC _x de átomo único para el almacenamiento de...

Área de la Ciencia:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Sustainable Chemistry

Sus antecedentes:

• Biomass valorization and rechargeable metal-air batteries face challenges due to sluggish oxygen evolution reactions.
• Highly active bifunctional catalysts are needed to replace oxygen evolution reactions with value-added biomass electrooxidation.

Objetivo del estudio:

• To develop a single-atom nickel-decorated tungsten carbide (Ni-WCx) catalyst with bifunctional activity for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).
• To investigate the catalyst's performance in HMF-assisted Zn-air batteries and elucidate the mechanism of its activity.

Principales métodos:

• Synthesis of single-atom Ni-decorated WCx catalyst.
• Electrochemical characterization for HMF electrooxidation and ORR.
• In situ spectroscopic analysis and multiscale simulations.
• Testing in HMF-assisted Zn-air batteries.

Principales resultados:

• Ni-WCx catalyst achieved near-quantitative conversion of HMF to furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) with 99% selectivity.
• Demonstrated excellent ORR performance with a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.855 V.
• Enabled an ultralow charge-discharge voltage gap of 0.71 V at 20 mA cm-2 in HMF-assisted Zn-air batteries with remarkable cycling stability.

Conclusiones:

• Atomically dispersed Ni sites act as active centers and facilitate HMF mass transport by reconstructing the interfacial hydrogen-bond network.
• The catalyst offers a new design strategy for electrocatalysts, highlighting interfacial solvent engineering for hybrid energy-chemical systems.