Atomically dispersed Pd electrocatalyst for efficient aqueous phase dechlorination reaction

• Main Authors: Mao, Zhechuan, Liu, Linghui, Yang, Hong Bin, Zhang, Yangliang, Yao, Zeqing, Wu, Huan, Huang, Yanqiang, Xu, Yinghua, Liu, Bin
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Chemical engineering; Dechlorination; 4-Chlorophenol
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159460
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

High atom utilization is important for practical application of Pd catalysts in dechlorination of chlorinated organic pollutants (COPs). Herein, we report atomically dispersed Pd (coordinated with 2 pyridinic N) anchored on N-doped carbon (A-Pd-NC) as an efficient catalyst toward electrochemical dechlorination of COPs in aqueous solution. Constant current electrolysis showed that the A-Pd-NC catalyst possessed a much higher dechlorination activity (DA, 98.9 mmol•g−1•h−1) than commercial Pd/C (2.4 mmol•g−1•h−1). Using A-Pd-NC as an effective electrocatalyst, near 100% product selectivity of 4-chlorophenol to phenol could be achieved at pH = 3. Constant potential electrolysis, cyclic voltammetry (CV), electron spin resonance (ESR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculation results suggested that the dechlorination stability of A-Pd-NC was dependent on the potential applied on the catalyst and the dechlorination reaction followed the hydrodechlorination mechanism with electrochemically adsorbed H as the reductant.