@article{Wu2025, 
author = {Haoran Wu and Haishan Xu and Zhenbing Xie and Runlu Yang and Xin Wang and Xinwei Chen and Liang Wu and Chongyin Zhang and Weixia Zhu and Yiyong Mai},
title = {Biomass-derived 2D Pb0/Pb2+ dual-center-site catalysts for efficient 5-hydroxymethylfurfural electroreduction},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {2},
pages = {94907089},
keywords = {electrocatalysis, hydrogenation, biomass conversion, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, biomass-derived carbon materials},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907089},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907089},
abstract = {Using natural resources to construct electrocatalysts for biomass conversion and elucidating their catalytic mechanisms are of great significance, but have remained challenging. Here, a series of two-dimensional (2D) biomass-based Pb/PbO@C catalysts with Pb/PbO nanoparticles anchored on carbon nanosheets were synthesized using natural-derived humate as the precursor. By adjusting the carbonization temperature, an electron-deficient Pb0/Pb2+ dual-center-site catalyst can be achieved. The optimized Pb/PbO@C catalyst showed an excellent performance for the electrochemical hydrogenation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to high value-added 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF), with high Faradaic efficiency (FE: 91.9%) and selectivity (Sel: 89.7%), achieving comparable performance to those of the reported noble metal-based electrocatalysts. Mechanism study revealed that the electron-deficient Pb0/Pb2+ dual-center-site provided abundant Lewis acidic sites and promoted the dissociation of water to the active hydrogen (H*) species, thus enhancing the adsorption of HMF on Pb2+ sites and the coverage of H* species on Pb0 sites. The high coverage of H* species and the synergistic effect of dual-center sites substantially promoted the binding of H* and HMF to form H-HMF* and inhibited the recombination of H* species, thereby accelerating the reaction kinetics of HMF reduction.}
}