Selective electroreduction of levulinic acid by controlling the crystalline structure of PbO on electrodes

Electrocatalysis of biomass-derived platform molecules is an effective way to utilize biomass. Electrodes for the electrocatalytic hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA) to selectively produce valeric acid (VA) have been extensively studied. Improving the electrocatalytic activity of electrodes for LA conversion is a meaningful and challenging task. This paper prepared β-PbO/Pb electrodes by laser processing. The higher adsorption of LA on the β-PbO surface was confirmed by in situ infrared and Raman spectra and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The β-PbO/Pb electrode exhibited higher electrocatalytic activity than the α-PbO/Pb and Pb electrodes. Complete conversion of LA was achieved at a much lower electrode potential of −1.4 V (vs RHE) with an 85 % yield of VA and greater than 90 % selectivity. In addition, laser processing technology provides a strategy for the rapid processing of electrodes to enable large-scale continuous production in industry.