Bimetallic Pt-Hg Aerogels for Electrocatalytic Upgrading of Ethanol to Acetate

Electrochemical upgrading of ethanol to acetic acid provides a promising strategy to couple with the current hydrogen production from water electrolysis. This work reports the design of a series of bimetallic Pt-Hg aerogels, where the PtHg aerogel exhibits a 10.5-times higher mass activity than that of commercial Pt/C toward ethanol oxidation. More impressively, the PtHg aerogel demonstrates nearly 100% selectivity toward the production of acetic acid. The operando infrared spectroscopic studies and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis verify the preferable C2 pathway mechanism during the reaction. This work opens an avenue for the electrochemical synthesis of acetic acid via ethanol electrolysis.