Metal-Support Interaction Boosts Au Catalysts for Hydrogen Evolution-Coupled Ethanol Electro-Oxidation Reaction

Electrochemical hydrogen and acetate cogeneration from ethanol is a promising green hydrogen production technique with low hydrogen production energy consumption and high profitability. However, the poor catalytic stability of the anodic ethanol electro-oxidation reaction (EOR) retards the device application. We adopted a metal support interaction strategy to reinforce small-sized Au active sites using cuprous sulfide supports. The Au−Cu_2–xS/C showed a superior activity of 1055 mA mg_Au⁻¹ at 1.1 V vs. RHE and retained the high activity in the chronopotentiometric test, surpassing the Au/C catalyst. It was demonstrated that the Cu_2–xS support facilitated the formation of Au−OH and prevented the gold sites from aggregation, leading to high activity and stability for EOR. Finally, an electrochemical cogeneration electrolyzer assembled with the Au−Cu_2–xS/C anodic catalyst continuously ran for over 100 hours, suggesting the device‘s applicability.