Electrocatalysis of Furfural Oxidation Coupled with H2 Evolution via Nickel‐Based Electrocatalysts in Water

Abstract Electrocatalytic water splitting has been widely considered as a promising approach to produce clean H 2 . The anodic half reaction of water splitting, the O 2 evolution reaction (OER), is the kinetic bottleneck of the overall process and its product O 2 is not of high value. Herein, we report a novel strategy to replace OER with a thermodynamically more favorable anodic reaction, furfural oxidation to 2‐furoic acid. Furfural is one of the dehydration products of biomass and its oxidation product 2‐furoic acid has many industrial applications. A bifunctional electrocatalyst of Ni 2 P‐derived arrays on nickel foam (Ni 2 P/Ni/NF) was developed for the integrated electrocatalysis of both furfural oxidation and H 2 production. When Ni 2 P/Ni/NF acts as the electrocatalyst for both anode and cathode, nearly 100 % Faradaic efficiencies for H 2 evolution and furfural oxidation were obtained. Such an integrated electrolysis catalyzed by Ni 2 P/Ni/NF required an applied voltage ≈110 mV smaller than that of pure water splitting to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm −2 , together with robust stability. Overall, our novel electrolyzer produced valuable products at both electrodes (H 2 at cathode and 2‐furoic acid at anode) and may extend to the coupling of H 2 evolution with many other valuable organic oxidation reactions.