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Room-temperature electrochemical acetylene reduction to ethylene with high conversion and selectivity

Abstract

The selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene in ethylene-rich gas streams is an important process in the manufacture of polyethylene. Conventional thermal hydrogenation routes require temperatures above 100 °C and excess hydrogen to achieve a satisfactory C2H2 conversion efficiency. Here, we report a room-temperature electrochemical acetylene reduction system based on a layered double hydroxide (LDH)-derived copper catalyst that offers an ethylene Faradaic efficiency of up to ~80% and inhibits alkane and hydrogen formation. The system affords an acetylene conversion of over 99.9% at a flow rate of 50 ml min−1 in a simulated gas feed, yielding high-purity ethylene with an ethylene/acetylene volume ratio exceeding 105 and negligible residual hydrogen (0.08 vol.%). These acetylene conversion metrics are superior to most other state-of-the-art strategies. The findings therefore conclusively demonstrate an electrochemical strategy as a viable alternative to current technologies for acetylene-to-ethylene conversions with potential advantages in energy and atom economies.

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Fig. 1: Routes for acetylene conversion in ethylene-rich gas streams.
Fig. 2: Characterization of EAR in a flow system.
Fig. 3: Characterization of the LD-Cu catalyst.
Fig. 4: Kinetic analysis of the acetylene reduction.
Fig. 5: EAR in the presence of ethylene.
Fig. 6: Full cell EAR performance evaluation and comparison.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Key Projects for Fundamental Research and Development of China (2017YFA0206904, 2017YFA0206900, 2016YFB0600901 and 2018YFB1502002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51825205, U1662118, 51772305, 51572270, 21871279, 21802154 and 21902168), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2191002, 2194089 and 2182078), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB17000000), the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Project (Z181100005118007), a Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship (NA170422), the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GJHZ1819 and GJHZ201974), the K. C. Wong Education Foundation and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the CAS. G.I.N.W. acknowledges funding support from the University of Auckland Faculty Research Development Fund, the Energy Education Trust of New Zealand, the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology and a philanthropic donation from G. and K. Trounson. The EXAFS experiments were conducted at the 1W1B beamline of Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF).

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Contributions

R.S. and T.Z. conceived the idea for the project. R.S. designed electrochemical cell. Z.W. and Z.L. performed the structural characterization. R.S. and Z.W. conducted the measurements. Y.Z., B.Z. and Z.S. performed the computer simulation. R.S., G.I.N.W. and T.Z. wrote the manuscript and C.X. and H.W. provided suggestions. T.Z. supervised the project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Haotian Wang or Tierui Zhang.

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Supplementary Methods, Figs. 1–27, Tables 1–6 and references.

Supplementary Data 1

Atomic coordinates of the computational models.

Supplementary Data 2

Atomic coordinates of the computational models.

Supplementary Data 3

Atomic coordinates of the computational models.

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Shi, R., Wang, Z., Zhao, Y. et al. Room-temperature electrochemical acetylene reduction to ethylene with high conversion and selectivity. Nat Catal 4, 565–574 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-021-00640-y

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