Fe-NiOOH/NiMo/NF heterojunction synergistically enables stable wastewater degradation and efficient HER at high current density

The development of the liquor industry urgently needs to solve the problem of wastewater treatment. The electrochemical oxidation method, with its advantages of high efficiency and environmental friendliness, has surpassed traditional processes. The low electro-oxidation potential of organic alcohols in wastewater (significantly lower than the oxygen evolution reaction, OER) endows it with dual value: it can replace the anode OER while simultaneously achieving pollutant degradation and driving the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the cathode, achieving the synergy of “anode pollution control and cathode hydrogen production”. Based on this, this study constructed a Fe-NiOOH/NiMo/NF heterojunction catalyst, which, through the synergy of the efficient alcohol degradation ability of Fe-NiOOH and the excellent hydrogen evolution performance of NiMo, established a stable coupling system for wastewater degradation and hydrogen evolution at high current densities. Experiments confirmed that: Experimentally, the Fe-NiOOH/NiMo/NF anode delivers 200 mA cm −2 at 1.434 V vs. RHE; the NiMo/NF cathode reaches 20 mA cm −2 at an overpotential of 88 mV; and the full cell (Fe-NiOOH/NiMo/NF=|NiMo/NF) sustains 100 mA cm −2 for 100 h with only a 30 mV rise in voltage. Compared with the high-purity alcohol-based OER replacement scheme, using low-cost liquor wastewater as the anode reactant significantly reduces the cost of hydrogen production. The stable operation of this synergy system at high current densities provides a reliable technical path for the industrialized wastewater degradation and hydrogen production.