Electrochemical Ethylamine Dehydrogenation to Acetonitrile on Platinum-Based Catalysts

Hydrogen storage is a crucial link between green hydrogen generation by water electrolysis and hydrogen application in fuel cells. We very recently reported a new, electrochemical ethylamine/acetonitrile redox method for hydrogen storage [1]. This method realizes hydrogen uptake by pairing acetonitrile hydrogenation to ethylamine reaction (AHR) on cathode and hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) on anode, and realizes hydrogen release by pairing ethylamine dehydrogenation to acetonitrile reaction (EDR) on anode and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on cathode. With 8.9 wt.% theoretical storage capacity and ambient reaction conditions being demonstrated in the study, this method shows a great potential to advance hydrogen storage technology and meet the DOE target. One remaining challenge of this method was a rapid activity decay of the used commercial platinum catalyst (Pt/C) in the EDR, which caused a long-term durability issue. In this work, we report our fundamental study of Pt catalyst deactivation mechanism in EDR and the discovery of new Pt-based catalysts. Attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) was employed for characterizing working catalyst surface under reactive conditions. Partially dehydrogenated intermediate species were observed to generate on Pt surface, which strongly adsorbed and caused an accumulation and blockage of the active sites. Interestingly, the catalyst showed a self-cleaning property where the intermediates can be hydrogenated back to ethylamine and released from Pt surface below 0 V vs. RHE. A group of Pt-Ni alloy catalysts were prepared and investigated the composition effect in this reaction, among which Pt 3 Ni exhibited 75% higher activity and significantly improved stability compared to Pt. ATR-IR experiments showed that the accumulation of intermediates on the Pt 3 Ni surface was much slower than that on the Pt, attributed to weakened adsorption. This work provides mechanistic insights into EDR reaction pathways and the cause of Pt catalyst deactivation and offers a Pt alloy strategy for active and stable catalyst design. [1] Wu, D.; Li, J.; Yao, L.; Xie, R.; Peng, Z. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 13, 55292 (2021).