【Frontiers in HaiChuan Chemical Technology】Progress achieved in research on biomass electrocatalytic reduction for value enhancement at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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Progress made in the research on electrocatalytic reduction of biomass for value enhancement. Recently, the team led by Wan Lijun and Hu Jinsong from the Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructures and Nanotechnology at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has made new advances in this area of research. 　　Converting biomass resources into high-value-added chemicals is of great significance for increasing the value of renewable carbon resources. Among them, furfural is a representative biomass platform molecule derived from lignocellulose, with furfuryl alcohol being its main downstream product. The preparation of furfuryl alcohol from furfural through the electrocatalytic reduction (ECR) process is a green, safe, and sustainable method, featuring mild operating conditions and the ability to be coupled with renewable power sources. However, on traditional copper-based catalysts, the ECR process for furfural is slow, and mixed products are typically obtained, making it difficult to meet industrial requirements. Developing highly active and selective furfural ECR catalysts is key to further advancing this process. 　　The research team has been dedicated to developing high-performance non-precious metal electrocatalysts, and has elucidated the key role of multi-component/site synergistic catalytic processes in enhancing the efficiency of electrocatalytic reactions. In this study, they found that introducing synergistic sites in conventional copper catalysts that can generate active hydrogen and facilitate hydrogen transfer enables the shift from a proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET)-dominated mechanism in traditional ECR processes to a surface electrochemical hydrogen atom transfer (HAT)-dominated mechanism. This approach overcomes the problem of low selectivity in ECR resulting from the non-directional hydrogenation that leads to the formation of multiple products, thereby enabling the efficient synthesis of a single product. 　　These research results provide new insights for designing highly active and selective ECR catalysts by regulating the hydrogenation reaction mechanism.