Incorporating Ordered Indium Sites into Rhodium for Ultra‐Low Potential Electrocatalytic Conversion of Ethylene Glycol to Glycolic Acid

• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202418959
• Publication Date: 2025-03-11T15:19:04Z
• Authors: Caihong He; Yifan Yan; Yu Fu; Chaoqun Ma; Jing Xia; Sumei Han; Huaifang Zhang; Xiao Ma; Gang Lin; Fukai Feng; Xiangmin Meng; Wenbin Cao; Lijie Zhu; Zhenhua Li; Qipeng Lu
• Keywords: Glycolic acid

Abstract The upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)‐derived ethylene glycol (EG) to glycolic acid (GA, a biodegradable polymer monomer) via electrocatalysis not only produces valuable chemicals but also mitigates plastic pollution. However, the current reports for electrooxidation EG‐to‐GA usually operate at reaction potentials >1.0 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), much higher than theoretical potential (0.065 RHE), resulting in substantial energy wastage. Herein, body‐centered cubic RhIn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) anchored on carbon support (denoted as RhIn/C) are synthesized, which shows excellent performance with an onset 0.35 RHE, lower values reported literature. catalyst possesses satisfactory GA selectivity (85% 0.65 RHE). Experimental results combined density functional theory calculations demonstrate that IMCs enhance adsorption EG and OH − , facilitating generation reactive oxygen species thereby improving catalytic performance. RhIn/C exhibits electrocatalytic evolution reaction, ensuring it can be used bifunctional two‐electrode system coupled production. This work opens new avenues reducing consumption PET‐derived clean