Ampere-level furfurylamine electrosynthesis enabled by high-density atomic copper sites and a well-engineered electrolysis reactor.

Abstract

Furfurylamine is an essential feedstock for diverse agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals; however, industrial-scale thermochemical furfurylamine production is plagued by high energy consumption and considerable greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we propose an electrosynthesis approach for converting biomass-derived furfural to furfurylamine, using nitrate as the nitrogen source under ambient conditions. We observe that single atomic copper (Cu-SA) sites favor the C─N coupling of nitrate-derived hydroxylamine and furfurals over hydroxylamine hydrogenation to ammonia (preferred by Cu subnanoclusters and nanoparticles), endowing Cu-SA with unique advantages in facilitating furfurylamine production. To enable industrial-scale furfurylamine production and suppress by-product formation, we design a single-pass continuous flow reactor with the separate liquid feeding of furfural and alkaline nitrate solutions and construct the highly dense Cu-SA sites. This integration achieves a large current of 2.3 amperes at a cell voltage of 1.9 volts, accompanied by an 84.53% single-pass conversion rate and 100% selectivity toward furfurylamine. Notably, techno-economic analysis demonstrates the profitability of our electrosynthesis furfurylamine route.