Manipulation of Hydrogen Transfer Behaviors by RhCu Alloying Enables an All-in-one Sustainable "Furfural-Nitrate" System.

Nitrate and furfural are typical wastes mainly from industrialization and agriculturalization progresses, and their clean conversions are still very challenging for a sustainable future. Nevertheless, scant attention has been devoted to the core issues: the rational integration of two wastes recycling and the targeted manipulation of hydrogen (H*) transfer behaviors to address their sluggish reaction kinetics. Herein, we report an all-in-one electrochemical energy system that is thermodynamically designed by coupling nitrate reduction (NORR) and furfural oxidation reactions (FORs) together. Particularly, the poor kinetics for both electrode reactions are efficaciously optimized by the bifunctional electrocatalyst of RhCu alloy nanowires on copper foam (RhCu NW/CF) with highly improved dual-directional H*-modulation performances, thus initializing NORR for NH synthesis at +0.31 V and driving FOR for H harvest at an onset potential lower than 0 V. Eventually, such integrated "Furfural-Nitrate" system can simultaneously effectuate the electricity energy supply (10.76 mW cm), wastewater purification, cathodic hydrogen storage (NH), anodic H production, and biomass upgrading. Hence, it provides a promising perspective of "turning waste into treasure" in a rational manner, justifying its all-in-one property in addressing the global challenge of sustainable energy.