Surface-hydrogenated CrMnO<sub>x</sub> coupled with GaN nanowires for light-driven bioethanol dehydration to ethylene.

Wang, Zhouzhou; Ye, Haotian; Li, Yixin; Sheng, Bowen; Wang, Ping; Ou, Pengfei; Li, Xiao-Yan; Yu, Tianqi et al. · Nat Commun · 2025

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Light-driven bioethanol dehydration offers attractive outlooks for the sustainable production of ethylene. Herein, a surface-hydrogenated CrMnO<sub>x</sub> is coupled with GaN nanowires (GaN@CMO-H) for light-driven ethanol dehydration to ethylene. Through combined experimental and computational investigations, a surface hydrogen-replenishment mechanism is proposed to disclose the ethanol dehydration pathway over GaN@CMO-H. Moreover, the surface-hydrogenated GaN@CMO-H can significantly lower the reaction energy barrier of the C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>5</sub>OH-to-C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> conversion by switching the rate-determining reaction step compared to both GaN and GaN@CMO. Consequently, the surface-hydrogenated GaN@CMO-H illustrates a considerable ethylene production activity of 1.78 mol·g<sub>cat</sub><sup>-1</sup>·h<sup>-1</sup> with a high turnover number of 94,769 mole ethylene per mole CrMnO<sub>x</sub>. This work illustrates a new route for sustainable ethylene production with the only use of bioethanol and sunlight beyond fossil fuels.