Nano-Micro Letters, Volume. 15, Issue 1, 210(2023)
Dual-Doped Nickel Sulfide for Electro-Upgrading Polyethylene Terephthalate into Valuable Chemicals and Hydrogen Fuel
Electro-upcycling of plastic waste into value-added chemicals/fuels is an attractive and sustainable way for plastic waste management. Recently, electrocatalytically converting polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into formate and hydrogen has aroused great interest, while developing low-cost catalysts with high efficiency and selectivity for the central ethylene glycol (PET monomer) oxidation reaction (EGOR) remains a challenge. Herein, a high-performance nickel sulfide catalyst for plastic waste electro-upcycling is designed by a cobalt and chloride co-doping strategy. Benefiting from the interconnected ultrathin nanosheet architecture, dual dopants induced up-shifting d band centre and facilitated in situ structural reconstruction, the Co and Cl co-doped Ni3S2 (Co, Cl-NiS) outperforms the single-doped and undoped analogues for EGOR. The self-evolved sulfide@oxyhydroxide heterostructure catalyzes EG-to-formate conversion with high Faradic efficiency (> 92%) and selectivity (> 91%) at high current densities (> 400 mA cm-2). Besides producing formate, the bifunctional Co, Cl-NiS-assisted PET hydrolysate electrolyzer can achieve a high hydrogen production rate of 50.26 mmol h-1 in 2 M KOH, at 1.7 V. This study not only demonstrates a dual-doping strategy to engineer cost-effective bifunctional catalysts for electrochemical conversion processes, but also provides a green and sustainable way for plastic waste upcycling and simultaneous energy-saving hydrogen production.
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Zhijie Chen, Renji Zheng, Teng Bao, Tianyi Ma, Wei Wei, Yansong Shen, Bing-Jie Ni. Dual-Doped Nickel Sulfide for Electro-Upgrading Polyethylene Terephthalate into Valuable Chemicals and Hydrogen Fuel[J]. Nano-Micro Letters, 2023, 15(1): 210
Category: Research Articles
Received: May. 5, 2023
Accepted: Aug. 10, 2023
Published Online: Dec. 15, 2023
The Author Email: Zheng Renji (zhengrj@csu.edu.cn), Ni Bing-Jie (bingjieni@gmail.com)