Tuning the Relative Binding Strengths of Reactants to Products on Shape-Controlled SrTiO₃-Supported Palladium for an Enhanced Electrocatalytic Hydrodechlorination

Chlorophenols (CPs) are toxic, persistent organic pollutants in the environment because they are extremely stable and not easily biodegradable naturally. Improving the mass activity of Pd is essential to facilitating the development of Pd-mediated electrocatalytic hydrodechlorination (EHDC) for the detoxification of CPs. Herein, we demonstrated that the interaction of Pd with SrTiO3 (Pd/STO) significantly improved the EHDC performance. Specifically, Pd interacting with dodecahedral SrTiO3 (Pd/STO-D) afforded a mass activity of 6.38 min–1·g–1, which was approximately 1.7 and 1.4 times higher than that of Pd/C (carbon black) and Pd/STO-C (cubic SrTiO3). Such high mass activity made Pd/STO-D stand out among the reported Pd-based catalysts. The enhanced EHDC performance was attributed to the electrons of Pd optimized by STO-D being in an electron-rich microenvironment, which intensified the adsorption and activation of the pollutant as well as the desorption of phenol (the product). This work promotes EHDC technology with low cost and high efficiency to reduce CPs pollution and toxicity.