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Plasma-Constructed Co 2 P-Ni 2 P Heterointerface for Electro‑Upcycling of Polyethylene Terephthalate Plastic to Co-Produce Hydrogen and Formate.

Jingsen ZhangXiuling ZhangChuan ShiXinyao YuYitong ZhouLanbo Di
Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) (2024)
Integrating electrochemical upcycling of polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an energy-saving approach for electrolytic hydrogen (H 2 ) production, along with the coproduction of formate. Herein, a novel and rapid strategy of cold plasma phosphating is employed to synthesize Co 2 P-Ni 2 P heterointerface decorated on carbon cloth (Co 2 P-Ni 2 P/CC) to catalyze H 2 generation and reform PET. Notably, the obtained Co 2 P-Ni 2 P/CC exhibits eminent ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR) and HER activities, effectuating low potentials of merely 1.300 and -0.112 V versus RHE at 100 mA cm -2 for the EGOR and HER, respectively, also attaining an ultralow cell bias of 1.300 V at 10 mA cm -2 for EG oxidation assisted-water splitting. DFT and characterization results validate that the as-formed built-in electric fields in the Co 2 P-Ni 2 P heterointerface can accelerate electrons transfer and deepen structural self-reconstruction, thereby boosting effectively water dissociation and ethylene glycol (EG) dehydrogenation. Impressively, coupling HER with PET-derived EG-to-formate in a flow-cell electrolyzer assembled with Co 2 P-Ni 2 P/CC pair achieves an intriguing formate Faradaic efficiency of 90.6% and an extraordinary stable operation of over 70 h at 100 mA cm -2 . The work exemplifies a facile and effective strategy for synthesizing metal phosphides electrocatalysts with extraordinary performance toward H 2 generation of water splitting and recycling of PET.
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