Wood-Derived, Monolithic Chainmail Electrocatalyst for Biomass-Assisted Hydrogen Production

The chainmail catalyst by encapsulating an active species within the carbon support is a well-established concept to endorse extraordinary stability for catalytic reactions under harsh conditions. Conventional chainmail catalysts inevitably suffer from poor accessibility to active sites, leading to extra voltage to compensate the sluggish diffusion kinetics in electrocatalysis. Herein, the naturally abundant wood material is converted into a monolithic chainmail electrocatalyst by encapsulating cobalt nanoparticles within N-doped carbonized wood. Such a monolithic chainmail catalyst is employed directly as electrode for hydrogen evolution (HER), oxygen evolution (OER), and monosaccharide oxidation reactions (MOR) with benchmark performance. By coupling the HER with MOR, the electrolyzer equipped with the monolithic chainmail catalyst allows hydrogen production at a current density of 100 mA cm−2 with a full cell voltage of only 1.36 V. Such design of wood-derived chainmail catalyst provides a promising way to fabricate robust electrocatalysts for future production of hydrogen and value-added chemicals.