Metal‐Support Interaction Boosts Au Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution‐Coupled Ethanol Electro‐Oxidation Reaction

Abstract

AbstractElectrochemical hydrogen and acetate cogeneration from ethanol is a promising green hydrogen production technique with low hydrogen production energy consumption and high profitability. However, the poor catalytic stability of the anodic ethanol electro‐oxidation reaction (EOR) retards the device application. We adopted a metal support interaction strategy to reinforce small‐sized Au active sites using cuprous sulfide supports. The Au−Cu2–xS/C showed a superior activity of 1055 mA mgAu−1 at 1.1 V vs. RHE and retained the high activity in the chronopotentiometric test, surpassing the Au/C catalyst. It was demonstrated that the Cu2–xS support facilitated the formation of Au−OH and prevented the gold sites from aggregation, leading to high activity and stability for EOR. Finally, an electrochemical cogeneration electrolyzer assembled with the Au−Cu2–xS/C anodic catalyst continuously ran for over 100 hours, suggesting the device‘s applicability.