Incorporating Ordered Indium Sites into Rhodium for Ultra‐Low Potential Electrocatalytic Conversion of Ethylene Glycol to Glycolic Acid

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Abstract
The upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)‐derived ethylene glycol (EG) to glycolic acid (GA, a biodegradable polymer monomer) via electrocatalysis not only produces valuable chemicals but also mitigates plastic pollution. However, the current reports for electrooxidation of EG‐to‐GA usually operate at reaction potentials of >1.0 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), much higher than the theoretical potential (0.065 V vs RHE), resulting in substantial energy wastage. Herein, body‐centered cubic RhIn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) anchored on carbon support (denoted as RhIn/C) are synthesized, which shows excellent performance for the EG‐to‐GA with an onset potential of only 0.35 V vs RHE, lower than the values reported in current literature. The catalyst also possesses satisfactory GA selectivity (85% at 0.65 V vs RHE). Experimental results combined with density functional theory calculations demonstrate that RhIn IMCs enhance the adsorption of EG and OH − , facilitating the generation of reactive oxygen species and thereby improving catalytic performance. RhIn/C also exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction, ensuring that it can be used as a bifunctional catalyst in the two‐electrode system for EG electrooxidation coupled with hydrogen production. This work opens new avenues for reducing the energy consumption of electrocatalytic upcycling of PET‐derived EG and clean energy production.
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (22108008)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (52471220)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (92061119)
  • Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (buctrc202011)
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFF0704705)
  • Beijing Nova Program (20220484172)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (2254087)

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