@article{Liu2025, 
author = {Danni Liu and Ziyu Yang and Fengzhan Si and Xiaoming Kang and Huanhua You and Hao Chen and Yanhong Weng and Guodong Fu and Jiujun Zhang and Xian-Zhu Fu and Jing-Li Luo},
title = {OH-induced favoring reconstruction of Cu electrode for enhanced stability in formaldehyde oxidation reaction with energy-saving hydrogen production},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {11},
pages = {94907646},
keywords = {formaldehyde oxidation reaction, strong OH adsorption, OH-induced favoring reconstruction effect, bipolar hydrogen production},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907646},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907646},
abstract = {The formaldehyde oxidation reaction (FOR) on a Cu-based electrocatalyst enables hydrogen (H2) at the anode in OH− solution, facilitating a bipolar H2 production system at ultra-low electrolysis voltage. However, the specific impact of *OH adsorption on the Cu surface regarding the FOR has been rarely investigated. Herein, the strong *OH adsorption Cu (S-OH Cu) electrode, which exhibits high activity and excellent stability of FOR, is developed to investigate the specific impact of *OH adsorption on the Cu surface during the FOR process. Impressively, the increased *OH adsorption on the Cu electrode, typically regarded as a poisoning effect that diminishes inherent FOR activity by reducing the adsorption of intermediate reactants, is firstly revealed as an OH-induced favorable reconstruction effect that significantly improves FOR stability. Specifically, the dual functions of OH-induced favoring reconstruction include accelerating the phase transition of the Cu(0)/Cu(I) redox cycle to refresh the active site and optimizing surface reconstruction to preferentially generate Cu(220) with stronger adsorption energy for H2C(OH)O* and lower C−H barrier energy during FOR. This work provides a promising strategy for designing stable Cu electrocatalysts for FOR to produce hydrogen with extremely low energy input.}
}