Abstract
Hybrid water electrolysis has been explored for the electrochemical oxidation of biomass,
glucose, alcohols, amines, urea, etc. to produce value-added products. The integration
of cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with anodic organic reaction (AOR) improves
the energy efficiency of the electrolyzer by reducing the cell voltage of the overall
process. Tremendous progress has been achieved in AOR by using transition-metal-based
catalysts. These transition-metal-based catalysts undergo anodic activation in the
alkali medium to form metal (oxy)hydroxide [M(O)x(OH)y] as the active catalyst. The atomic and electronic structure of M(O)x(OH)y essentially controls the conversion efficiency and product selectivity for AOR. In
this Account, we have described the design of the AOR precatalyst, its anodic activation,
and the basic principles of the integration of cathodic HER with AOR. The structural
features of the precatalyst and the active catalyst have been described with representative
examples. The recent progress and advancement in this field have been explained, and
the future scope and challenges associated with AOR have been addressed.
1 Introduction
2 Anodic Organic Oxidation Reactions
3 Activity and Selectivity of Anodic Organic Reaction
4 Anodic Activation of Transition-Metal-Based Catalysts
5 Mechanism of Anodic Organic Oxidation
6 Perspective and Outlook
Key words
hybrid water electrolysis - green hydrogen production - organic oxidation - value-added
products - activation of precatalyst - metal (oxy)hydroxide