What it is
Electrochemical hydrogenation of carbon-heteroatom bonds is often limited by slow surface hydrogen transfer, and the interfacial hydrogen-bond networks that could speed proton transfer suffer from nondirectional proton shuttling. The authors build hydrophilic CuOx islands on Cu foam and add electron-enriched Pd single atoms as proton traps (Pd1-CuOx/CF) to steer fast, directed proton transfer along a reconstructed hydrogen-bond network. The catalyst reaches 99% hydrogenation efficiency for carbon-chlorine bonds, outperforming Pd1-CF at 69% and CuOx/CF at 57%, and shows high selectivity and Faradaic efficiency when hydrogenating C=O and carbon-nitrogen triple bonds.
Why it matters
Efficient electrochemical hydrogenation is valuable for making chemicals under mild, electricity-driven conditions, but poorly directed proton transfer at the interface has capped its efficiency. Using single Pd atoms to trap and orient protons along a rebuilt hydrogen-bond network lifts carbon-chlorine hydrogenation efficiency to 99%, against 69% and 57% for the component catalysts, showing that engineering the proton-transfer path itself, and not just the active metal, is a lever for performance.
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Filed underElectrocatalysts for Energy Conversion, Advanced battery technologies research, CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts