Furfural Oxidation Paired with Hydrogen Evolution on Nife/Ni Foam and Mxene-Supported Catalysts
AIChE Annual Meeting
2023
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Annual Student Conference: Competitions & Events
Undergraduate Student Poster Session: Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
Monday, November 6, 2023 - 10:00am to 12:30pm
A two-dimensional early transition metal carbide (MXene) supported metal catalyst Co/Mo2TiC2Tx-700 was used as the cathode for hydrogen generation. MXenes offer advantages in catalysis due to their conductivity, stability, and high surface area. Mo2TiC2Tx as the substrate facilitated cobalt (Co) distribution, preserving active sites and optimizing metal supported interaction (MSI), influencing the electronic structure of Co for enhanced hydrogen evolution performance. The optimized Co/Mo2TiC2Tx-700 exhibited low overpotentials of 243.99 mV @ 100 mA cm-2 and 320.56 mV @ 400 mA cm-2 in H-type cell tests.
The NiFe/Ni foam prepared through an electrodeposition method served as an anode, which was paired with the Co/Mo2TiC2Tx-700 cathode (both to have an area of 2cm x 2cm) into a two-counterpart flow cell for furfural oxidation and hydrogen evolution. Co/Mo2TiC2Tx-700 outperformed commercial Pt/C electrodes with lower cell voltage (2.204V vs 2.249V) up to 100 mA cm-2, while maintaining less than 90% H2 faraday efficiency and having the same catalyst loading of 0.5 mg cm-2. This substitution improved the efficiency of furfural oxidation, co-producing hydrogen gas and 2-furoic acid. The research successfully developed efficient non-noble metal catalysts, offering an economic and safe solution for hydrogen gas production along with production of 2-furoic acid from a top bio renewable feedstock.