Northeast Normal University has made important progress in the research field of electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution chlor alkali industrial cogeneration

In the future, hydrogen production by electrolyzing water with renewable electric energy has become an ideal way for industrial hydrogen production because of its advantages such as wide range of raw materials, cleanness, high efficiency of energy conversion and high purity of product hydrogen However, the extra and expensive equipment input and the singleness of its industrial products in the early stage of production seriously restrict the improvement of its economic benefits, so it limits its large-scale practicality It may be an effective way to solve the above problems by combining electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution with traditional chemical production process, and then realizing co production As we all know, the chlor alkali industry, which produces caustic soda and chlorine by electrolyzing brine, is one of the leading and irreplaceable basic chemical industries in the national economy The classic chlor alkali industry consists of two semi reactions, namely, chloride evolution of anode and hydrogen evolution of cathode However, under the condition of cathode chlor alkali, due to the slow reaction of water cracking kinetics, the overpotential of chlor alkali industry is significantly increased, making it a high-energy consumption industry, which consumes nearly 10% of the global electric energy every year If we combine electrolytic hydrogen with high energy consumption chlor alkali industry to realize the co production of hydrogen and chlor alkali, it can not only effectively avoid the additional investment of hydrogen production equipment, but also realize the production of hydrogen energy with high efficiency and low cost, and at the same time, it is expected to significantly reduce the energy consumption of chlor alkali industry However, under the conditions of high temperature, high salt and concentrated alkali in chlor alkali industry, the lack of high efficiency, low overpotential and high stability catalyst for electrochemical hydrogen evolution has seriously hindered the development of the cogeneration technology Recently, the Key Laboratory of polyacid science, Ministry of education, School of chemistry, Northeast Normal University has made important breakthroughs in this field This work was jointly completed by the research team of Professor Li Yangguang, Associate Professor Tan Huaqiao and Dr Lang Zhongling and the research team of Professor Kang Zhenhui of Suzhou University The first author is Zhang Lunan, a doctoral candidate of Northeast Normal University, published in the international famous chemical energy magazine energy and Environmental Science (cable like Ru / wno @ C nanowires for simultaneously High-efficient Hydrogen Evolution and Low-energy Consumption Chlor-alkali Electrolysis, Energy Environ Sci , 2019 , DOI: 10.1039/C9EE01647C；IF=33.25 ） 。 In this paper, we report a series of new cable like catalysts (Ru / wno @ C) loaded with a small amount of (3.37% wt) ultra-small ruthenium nanoclusters Based on the experimental results and theoretical calculation, the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of the cable Ru / wno @ C catalyst was studied Among them, the optimal catalyst Ru / wno @ C (Ru wt% = 3.37%) in 1 mkoh, when the current density is 10 Ma cm - 2, the over potential is only 2 MV, which is the best basic Er electrocatalyst at present When the overpotential is 50 MV, the current density is as high as 4095.6 Ma mg-1, and the Tafel slope (33 MV dec-1) and long-time stability (100 h) are small Especially, in the simulated chlor alkali electrolyte at 90oC, the activity of the catalyst is much better than that of the traditional cathode When the current density reaches 10 Ma cm - 2, the voltage of the cell is only 2.48 V, which is 320 MV lower than that of the cell with low carbon steel as the cathode, and the cell runs stably for more than 25 hours In addition, through a large number of experiments and theoretical calculations, it is revealed that the electron transfer at the interface of tungsten oxynitride and ruthenium nanoclusters can not only effectively regulate the hydrogen adsorption free energy Δ g h *, but also It greatly reduced the energy barrier of water cracking of catalyst in alkaline medium, and jointly promoted the electrochemical hydrogen evolution activity of composite catalyst in simulated chlor alkali industrial electrolyte The carbon shell of the outer layer of the cable composite catalyst further improves the conductivity and stability of the catalyst in the electrochemical process This study provides an important reference for the design and preparation of high-efficiency and stable alkaline hydrogen evolution electrocatalyst, and illuminates the development prospect of high economic benefit and low energy consumption electrochemical hydrogen evolution chlor alkali industrial co production technology.