Engineering Pb/PbO heterojunction with oxygen vacancies for room-temperature electrosynthesis of γ-valerolactone

The conversion of biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) offers a sustainable route for chemical production. Achieving efficient and selective electrocatalytic hydrogenation in aqueous media remains challenging due to limited supply of active hydrogen (H*) and selectivity–efficiency trade-off. Herein, we propose an electrochemical reconstruction strategy to generate Pb/PbO nanosheet electrocatalysts that can enable efficient aqueous-phase electrocatalytic hydrogenation of LA to GVL at room temperature, achieving a Faradaic efficiency of 59.2% and a yield rate of 22.2 mg h −1  cm −2 at –1.1 V vs. RHE, outperforming most previously reported aqueous LA-to-GVL systems. In-situ experiments reveal that the superior performance resulted from the synergy of Pb/PbO heterostructures and oxygen vacancies: heterostructures facilitated efficient electron transfer, oxygen vacancies optimized LA adsorption and H* activation, and a high surface area exposed additional active sites. Integration of a flow electrolyzer with an extraction–distillation unit provided continuous LA conversion and high-purity GVL recovery, demonstrating practical feasibility. This work provides a rational design of efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogenation of biomass-derived platform molecules.