Regulating the Activity and Product Selectivity of Electrocatalytic Glycerol Oxidation by Changing the Au Loading on Ni2.86Te2/NF

Electrocatalytic glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) has attracted much attention recently in the production of high-value-added chemicals coupled with water electrolysis for energy-saving hydrogen production due to its mild reaction conditions, green and harmless, and lower onset potential than the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in water electrolysis. However, under alkaline conditions, glycerol is prone to generate low-value-added C1 products, and the selectivity for C3 products is a significant challenge. In this work, we successfully regulated the activity and product selectivity of electrocatalytic glycerol oxidation by changing the Au loading on Ni2.86Te2/NF. The results showed that the selectivity of Au/Ni2.86Te2/NF-3 for glyceric acid (GLA) was 72.41%, and its GOR performance and selectivity were superior to those of recently reported catalysts. An appropriate Au loading results in favorable changes in Au distribution and surface electronic structure, which are associated with improved GOR activity and GLA selectivity.