Ru ‐supported Cu nanowire catalyst enabling to suppress C–C coupling for high‐selectivity ethylamine electrosynthesis

AbstractElectrochemical acetonitrile hydrogenation compared with thermocatalytic hydrogenation provides a potential route to produce ethylamine in mild conditions. It is challenging to suppress the C –C coupling for improving ethylamine selectivity. Here, Ru-supported Cu nanowire catalysts (Ru-Cu NWs) are designed to achieve nearly 100% specific selectivity of ethylamine without coupling byproducts.In situ vibrational spectroscopy and electron spin resonance results reveal that the Ru-Cu NWs provide a high active adsorption hydrogen (H*) coverage at the electrified interface so that the imine intermediates are more readily hydrogenated to generate ethylamine, thus suppressing the C –C coupling. Density functional theory calculations disclose that the formation of H* occurs more readily over Ru-Cu NWs than Cu NWs. Moreover, the presence of Ru changes the potential-determining step and facilitates the entire hydrogenation process. The strategy and understanding established her e can be extended to other electrocatalytic hydrogenation reactions.

Source: AIChE Journal - February 6, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Dong Xing, Lei Dong, Yanbin Qi, Wangxin Ge, Xiaoli Jiang, Yuan Zhao, Wenfei Zhang, Pengfei Tian, Hongliang Jiang, Chunzhong Li Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research