Cu2P7-CoP Heterostructure Nanosheets Enable High-Performance of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Electrooxidation

Electrooxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfural (HMF) into 2,5-furandicarboxylicacid (FDCA) has been regarded as a promising sustainable approach to achieve value-added chemicals. However, it is still impeded by the unsatisfactory performance of electrocatalysts. Here, Cu2P7-CoP heterostructure nanosheets were reported to enable powerful HMF electrooxidation. The Cu2P7-CoP heterostructure nanosheets were fabricated by microwave-assisted deep eutectic solvent (DES) approach, along with subsequent phosphiding. The Cu2P7-CoP heterostructure nanosheets enabled a superb 100 % HMF conversion at 1.43 V (vs. RHE) with 98.8 % FDCA yield and 98 % Faradaic efficiency (FE), demonstrating its promising application in HMF electrooxidation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, open-circuit potential (OCP) approach and density functional theory (DFT) calculation uncovered that the electron transfer and redistribution between Cu2P7 and CoP improved the adsorption capacity of HMF and modulated the catalytic performance. This study not only offered a powerful electrocatalyst for HMF electrooxidation, but also provided a conceptually new strategy for the heterostructure catalyst design.