The challenge in the electrochemical reduction of levulinic acid (LA) lies in designing highly selective, energy-efficient, and non-precious-metal electrocatalysts that minimize the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction during LA conversion. Herein, we reported a facile pulsed electrodeposition strategy to fabricate bimetallic electrocatalysts with different combinations of lead (Pb), indium (In), tin, and cadmium supported by free-standing carbon felts (CFs). The as-prepared bimetallic self-supporting electrodes were examined for the electrochemical hydrogenation (ECH) of LA. The resulting InPb/CF electrocatalysts showed superior performance among the bimetallic catalysts. In addition, it was demonstrated that the catalytic performance of bimetallic samples was better than that of the corresponding monometallic samples. Notably, the In 72.4 Pb 27.6 /CF exhibited the best performance for ECH of LA, leading to 86.1 % of LA conversion, 99.7 % of selectivity towards valeric acid and 60.8 % of Faradaic efficiency at −1.5 V vs RHE. The excellent performance is mainly attributed to the modification of the electronic structures by the ligand and strain effects. Meanwhile, the relatively high electrochemically active surface area and the low charge transfer resistance are also conducive to improving the catalytic performance.
Xueliang Sun,Xiaolin Shao,Jin Yi,Jiujun Zhang,Yuyu Liu
CO 2 electroreduction to value-added chemicals and fuels has gained increasing attention; however, there are only a few catalysts with high performance under mild conditions that can be used in this technique. In this study, single metal Pb, In and bimetallic PbIn catalysts for aqueous CO 2 electroreduction were prepared using a facile 3-step process including PbIn granulation by reducing Pb(NO 3 ) 2 /In(NO 3 ) 3 aqueous solution with NaBH 4 , calcination in air, and in situ electroreduction. The bimetallic PbIn catalysts had better catalytic performance on CO 2 electroreduction than single metal catalysts. The bimetallic Pb 7 In 3 catalyst (atomic ratios of Pb and In is 7:3) presented the highest formic acid faradaic efficiency of 91.6% at −1.26 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode in a 0.5 M CO 2 -saturated KHCO 3 aqueous solution, which was 13% and 9.7% higher than that of single Pb and In catalysts, respectively. Moreover, the catalyst remained active after 10 h of continuous CO 2 electrolysis with a stale current density of −17 mA cm −2 . The experimental results showed that the excellent catalytic performance of Pb 7 In 3 catalyst may stem from its higher electrochemical active surface area, lower charge-transfer resistance and the synergistic effect of Pb and In in the catalyst. The presented bimetallic PbIn catalysts may have a wide of application prospect, and they may be synthesized from heavy metals in industrial wastewaters .
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