Electrochemical Partial Reforming of Ethanol into Ethyl Acetate Using Ultrathin Co(3)O(4) Nanosheets as a Highly Selective Anode Catalyst

[Image: see text] Electrochemical partial reforming of organics provides an alternative strategy to produce valuable organic compounds while generating H(2) under mild conditions. In this work, highly selective electrochemical reforming of ethanol into ethyl acetate is successfully achieved by using ultrathin Co(3)O(4) nanosheets with exposed (111) facets as an anode catalyst. Those nanosheets were synthesized by a one-pot, templateless hydrothermal method with the use of ammonia. NH(3) was demonstrated critical to the overall formation of ultrathin Co(3)O(4) nanosheets. With abundant active sites on Co(3)O(4) (111), the as-synthesized ultrathin Co(3)O(4) nanosheets exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic activities toward water and ethanol oxidations in alkaline media. More importantly, over the Co(3)O(4) nanosheets, the electrooxidation from ethanol to ethyl acetate was so selective that no other oxidation products were yielded. With such a high selectivity, an electrolyzer cell using Co(3)O(4) nanosheets as the anode electrocatalyst and Ni–Mo nanopowders as the cathode electrocatalyst has been successfully built for ethanol reforming. The electrolyzer cell was readily driven by a 1.5 V battery to achieve the effective production of both H(2) and ethyl acetate. After the bulk electrolysis, about 95% of ethanol was electrochemically reformed into ethyl acetate. This work opens up new opportunities in designing a material system for building unique devices to generate both hydrogen and high-value organics at room temperature by utilizing electric energy from renewable sources.