Suppressing oxygen evolution over Cu-doped NiO for efficient electro-upcycling of PET plastics
- 1Institute for Energy Research, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) 19 Keyuan Road Jinan Shandong 250014 China.
- 2Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University 1239 Siping Road Shanghai 200092 China.
Abstract
Electrochemical upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into value-added chemicals offers a sustainable route for plastic waste valorization. However, at high current densities, the competing oxygen evolution reaction (OER) lowers faradaic efficiency (FE) and compromises catalyst stability. Herein, we report a Cu-doped NiO catalyst grown on nickel foam (Cu-NiO/NF) that markedly suppresses OER while promoting the selective oxidation of ethylene glycol (EG) to formate. The Cu-NiO/NF electrode achieves a high formate FE exceeding 96% at 1.45 V vs. RHE. By combining X-ray absorption spectroscopy, in situ Raman and ATR-FTIR spectroscopies with density functional theory calculations, we reveal that Cu incorporation modulates the local coordination environment and electronic structure of Ni sites. This modulation promotes the formation of active NiOOH species while inhibiting the deprotonation of OH* to O*, the rate-determining step of OER. When integrated into a membrane electrode assembly, the system efficiently produces formate and enables the recovery of terephthalic acid from real PET hydrolysate with reduced energy input. This work thus offers a rational design principle for suppressing the parasitic OER while enabling efficient PET electro-upcycling.
Related
- Research Progress in Phase–Structure Evolution and Electro-magnetic–Wave Absorption Performance of Aluminosilicate Mineral–Based Ceramics
- Cellulose Coating Altered the Electro-Chemo-Mechanical Evolution of Sodium Thioantimonate Electrolyte in Solid-state Sodium Batteries: An Operando Raman Study
- Laser-electrochemical fabrication of nanoporous high-entropy metallic glass films for efficient pH-universal hydrogen evolution
- Atomic layer deposition of Pd and SnO₂ on TiO₂ nanotubes: a route to efficient hydrogen evolution
- Hardware-Efficient Ground-State Preparation using Variational Imaginary-Time Majorana Evolution
BibTeX
@article{liu2026suppressing,
title = {{Suppressing oxygen evolution over Cu-doped NiO for efficient electro-upcycling of PET plastics}},
author = {Xuan Liu and Hui Fu and Yuheng Zhang and Xiaoyang He and Angang Song},
journal = {Chemical science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6sc07398k},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13718830},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Suppressing oxygen evolution over Cu-doped NiO for efficient electro-upcycling of PET plastics
AU - Xuan Liu
AU - Hui Fu
AU - Yuheng Zhang
AU - Xiaoyang He
AU - Angang Song
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - Chemical science
DO - 10.1039/d6sc07398k
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13718830
AB - Electrochemical upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into value-added chemicals offers a sustainable route for plastic waste valorization. However, at high current densities, the competing oxygen evolution reaction (OER) lowers faradaic efficiency (FE) and compromises catalyst stability. Herein, we report a Cu-doped NiO catalyst grown on nickel foam (Cu-NiO/NF) that markedly suppresses OER while promoting the selective oxidation of ethylene glycol (EG) to formate. The Cu-NiO/NF electrode achieves a high formate FE exceeding 96% at 1.45 V vs. RHE. By combining X-ray absorption spectroscopy, in situ Raman and ATR-FTIR spectroscopies with density functional theory calculations, we reveal that Cu incorporation modulates the local coordination environment and electronic structure of Ni sites. This modulation promotes the formation of active NiOOH species while inhibiting the deprotonation of OH* to O*, the rate-determining step of OER. When integrated into a membrane electrode assembly, the system efficiently produces formate and enables the recovery of terephthalic acid from real PET hydrolysate with reduced energy input. This work thus offers a rational design principle for suppressing the parasitic OER while enabling efficient PET electro-upcycling.
SN - 2041-6520
SN - 2041-6539
ER -