Highly efficient ethylene production via electrocatalytic hydrogenation of acetylene under mild conditions.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34873161.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-27372-8 and PMC identifier 8648715.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Renewable energy-based electrocatalytic hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene (E-HAE) under mild conditions is an attractive substitution to the conventional energy-intensive industrial process, but is challenging due to its low Faradaic efficiency caused by competitive hydrogen evolution reaction. Herein, we report a highly efficient and selective E-HAE process at room temperature and ambient pressure over the Cu catalyst. A high Faradaic efficiency of 83.2% for ethylene with a current density of 29 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> is reached at -0.6 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode. In-situ spectroscopic characterizations combined with first-principles calculations reveal that electron transfer from the Cu surface to adsorbed acetylene induces preferential adsorption and hydrogenation of the acetylene over hydrogen formation, thus enabling a highly selective E-HAE process through the electron-coupled proton transfer mechanism. This work presents a feasible route for high-efficiency ethylene production from E-HAE.