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Electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation of organic species involving water

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 8, pages 277–293 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fossil fuel-driven thermochemical hydrogenation and oxidation using high-pressure H2 and O2 are still popular but energy-intensive CO2-emitting processes. At present, developing renewable energy-powered electrochemical technologies, especially those using clean, safe and easy-to-handle reducing agents and oxidants for organic hydrogenation and oxidation reactions, is urgently needed. Water is an ideal carrier of hydrogen and oxygen. Electrochemistry provides a powerful route to drive water splitting under ambient conditions. Thus, electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation transformations involving water as the hydrogen source and oxidant, respectively, have been developed to be mild and efficient tools to synthesize organic hydrogenated and oxidized products. In this Review, we highlight the advances in water-participating electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation reactions of representative organic molecules. Typical electrode materials, performance metrics and key characterization techniques are firstly introduced. General electrocatalyst design principles and controlling the microenvironment for promoting hydrogenation and oxygenation reactions involving water are summarized. Furthermore, paired hydrogenation and oxidation reactions are briefly introduced before finally discussing the challenges and future opportunities of this research field.

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Fig. 1: General overview of how electrochemistry powered by renewable energy can transform organic species into more valuable chemicals.
Fig. 2: Electrodes, performance metrics and characterization techniques.
Fig. 3: General processes of electrochemical hydrogenation reactions (EHRs) and electro-oxidation reactions (EORs).
Fig. 4: Electrocatalyst design regulating the selectivity of electrochemical hydrogenation reactions (EHRs).
Fig. 5: Electrocatalyst design regulating the selectivity of electro-oxidation reactions.
Fig. 6: Interfacial microenvironment regulating the performance of electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation reactions.
Fig. 7: Paired electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation reactions (EHORs).

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFA1507400 to B.Z.) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22371205 to C.L.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Molecular Plus, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Cuibo Liu, Fanpeng Chen, Bo-Hang Zhao, Yongmeng Wu & Bin Zhang

  2. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Bin Zhang

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Contributions

B.Z. conceived the Review. C.L. conducted the literature search and prepared the manuscript. C.L., F.C. and B.Z. generated the images. Y.W. and B.H.Z. participated in discussions. B.Z. supervised the project and revised the manuscript.

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Liu, C., Chen, F., Zhao, BH. et al. Electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation of organic species involving water. Nat Rev Chem 8, 277–293 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-024-00589-z

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