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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.

Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 13 July 2021
Revised: 08 August 2021
Accepted: 18 August 2021
Published: 29 September 2021
Issue date: March 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding from Outstanding Youth Project of Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (No. 2021B1515020051), Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou (No. 2019050001), and Yunnan Expert Workstation (No. 202005AF150028).

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