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- Title
Electrosynthesis of chlorine from seawater-like solution through single-atom catalysts.
- Authors
Liu, Yangyang; Li, Can; Tan, Chunhui; Pei, Zengxia; Yang, Tao; Zhang, Shuzhen; Huang, Qianwei; Wang, Yihan; Zhou, Zheng; Liao, Xiaozhou; Dong, Juncai; Tan, Hao; Yan, Wensheng; Yin, Huajie; Liu, Zhao-Qing; Huang, Jun; Zhao, Shenlong
- Abstract
The chlor-alkali process plays an essential and irreplaceable role in the modern chemical industry due to the wide-ranging applications of chlorine gas. However, the large overpotential and low selectivity of current chlorine evolution reaction (CER) electrocatalysts result in significant energy consumption during chlorine production. Herein, we report a highly active oxygen-coordinated ruthenium single-atom catalyst for the electrosynthesis of chlorine in seawater-like solutions. As a result, the as-prepared single-atom catalyst with Ru-O4 moiety (Ru-O4 SAM) exhibits an overpotential of only ~30 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in an acidic medium (pH = 1) containing 1 M NaCl. Impressively, the flow cell equipped with Ru-O4 SAM electrode displays excellent stability and Cl2 selectivity over 1000 h continuous electrocatalysis at a high current density of 1000 mA cm−2. Operando characterizations and computational analysis reveal that compared with the benchmark RuO2 electrode, chloride ions preferentially adsorb directly onto the surface of Ru atoms on Ru-O4 SAM, thereby leading to a reduction in Gibbs free-energy barrier and an improvement in Cl2 selectivity during CER. This finding not only offers fundamental insights into the mechanisms of electrocatalysis but also provides a promising avenue for the electrochemical synthesis of chlorine from seawater electrocatalysis. Chlor-alkali process plays an important role in the chemical industry. However, large overpotential and low selectivity of currently used catalysts lead to high energy consumption. Here the authors report Ru-O4 single site catalysts for chlorination evolution with 1000 h stability at 1000 mA cm−2 in a seawater-like environment.
- Subjects
ELECTROSYNTHESIS; RUTHENIUM catalysts; CHLORINE; CATALYSTS; CHEMICAL industry; CHLORIDE ions; ELECTROCATALYSIS; ABATEMENT (Atmospheric chemistry); ARTIFICIAL seawater
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2023, Vol 14, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-38129-w