Electrochemical reduction of acetonitrile to ethylamine

Xia, Rong; Tian, Dong; Kattel, Shyam; Hasa, Bjorn; Shin, Haeun; Ma, Xinbin; Chen, Jingguang G.; Jiao, Feng

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22291-0

Electrochemical reduction of acetonitrile to ethylamine

Journal Article · Mon Mar 29 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22291-0· OSTI ID:1816195

^[1]; Tian, Dong ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[2]; ^[4]

Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Tianjin Univ. of Technology, Tianjin (China); OSTI
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Dept. of chemical Engineering
Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, FL (United States). Dept. of Physics
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)
Tianjin Univ. of Technology, Tianjin (China)

Electrifying chemical manufacturing using renewable energy is an attractive approach to reduce the dependence on fossil energy sources in chemical industries. Primary amines are important organic building blocks; however, the synthesis is often hindered by the poor selectivity because of the formation of secondary and tertiary amine byproducts. Herein, we report an electrocatalytic route to produce ethylamine selectively through an electroreduction of acetonitrile at ambient temperature and pressure. Among all the electrocatalysts, Cu nanoparticles exhibit the highest ethylamine Faradaic efficiency (~96%) at -0.29 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Under optimal conditions, we achieve an ethylamine partial current density of 846 mA cm^-2. A 20-hour stable performance is demonstrated on Cu at 100 mA cm^-2with an 86% ethylamine Faradaic efficiency. Moreover, the reaction mechanism is investigated by computational study, which suggests the high ethylamine selectivity on Cu is due to the moderate binding affinity for the reaction intermediates.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0009476; SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1816195

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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