The electrochemical reforming of glycerol at Pd nanocrystals modified ultrathin NiO nanoplates hybrids:An efficient system for glyceraldehyde and hydrogen coproduction

The glycerol electro-oxidation reaction(GEOR)is a green and promising method for the glyceraldehyde production.In this work,Pd nanocrystals(Pd-NCs)modified ultrathin NiO nanoplates(NiO-uNPs)hybrids(Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs)are successfully synthesized using successive cyanogel hydrolysis,chemical reduction,and calcination treatment methods.Various electrochemical measurements and physicochemical characterization results demonstrate that Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs hybrids have excellent electrocatalytic performance for both GEOR and hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)in alkaline medium,which benefit from the large specific surface area,uniform distribution of Pd-NCs,and the modified electronic structure of Ni atoms.At Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs hybrids,only 1.43 V is needed to obtain the current density of 100 mA∙cm^(−2) for GEOR,much lower than that for oxygen evolution reaction(1.82 V).In addition,Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs hybrids exhibit better HER performance than commercial Pd/C electrocatalyst.As a result,the constructed Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs||Pd-NCs/NiO-uNPs glycerol electrolyzer only requires 1.62 V electrolysis voltage to reach 10 mA∙cm^(−2) current density,showing an energy-efficient and economy-competitive synthesis for the coproduction of glyceraldehyde and hydrogen.