Hierarchical Ru⁰/Ru^δ+/Al₂O₃ electrocatalyst enabling phenolic contaminant-to-chemical conversion.

ABSTRACT: Valorizing phenol in wastewater to cyclohexanol via electrochemical hydrogenation (ECH) offers a promising strategy for advancing a circular economy that shifts from pollutant control to resource recovery, but remains challenged by the absence of efficient and selective catalysts in complex wastewater matrices. Herein, we report a hierarchical Ru⁰/Ru^δ+/Al₂O₃ catalyst with coupling multi-level electronic state to improve the phenol ECH performance. The metal-semimetal-insulator hierarchical interface effectively induces the integration of H* evolution and phenol activation, and the unsaturated Ru-O coordination formed by precise anchoring of Ru on Al₂O₃ lowers the reaction energy barrier, achieving a 4.3-fold increase in the

SUBMITTER: Wang R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12644744 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature