Enhancement Effect from Res2/Co9s8 Heterostructure Evolution for the Highly Effective Furfural Oxidation Coupling with Hydrogen Production

Abstract

T he dynamic evolution of catalyst structures during the electrocatalytic reaction has seriously hindered our comprehensive understanding of catalytic processes and pathways. In this work, we report that the metal-sulfide (ReS2/Co9S8) heterostructure has multiple synergistic effects, enhancing the furfural oxidation reaction (FOR) coupling with hydrogen evolution (HER). Under cathodic reduction conditions, H2 production can be promoted at specific active sites by the original heterostructure of ReS2/Co9S8. Under anodic oxidation conditions, a new heterointerface of ReS2/Co9S8-Co(OH)2 is in-situ reconstructed based on the original ReS2/Co9S8 heterostructure. The new Co9S8-Co(OH)2 heterointerface induced by this ReS2/Co9S8 heterostructure significantly enhances FOR performance in an indirect way at 1.33-1.53 VRHE, resulting in a 86.3% faradaic efficiency (FE). The optimized composite of ReS2/Co9S8 with different molar ratios in a two-electrode system exhibits superior performance toward HER||FOR, achieving a smaller cell voltage of 1.43 V to reach 10 mA cm–2 compared to ReS2||Co9S8 (1.69 V). This work verifies the reconstructed heterointerface of ReS2/Co9S8-Co(OH)2 for FOR and identifies the distinct catalytic mechanisms for FOR and HER.

Keywords: ReS2 nanosheet, Co9S8 particle, reconstructed heterointerface, Furfural oxidation reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction