Selective Methanol-to-Formate Electrocatalytic Conversion on Branched Nickel Carbide.

A methanol economy will be favored by the availability of low cost catalysts able to selective oxidize methanol to formate. This selective oxidation would allow extracting the largest part of the fuel energy while simultaneously producing a chemical with even higher commercial value than the fuel itself. Here we present a highly active methanol electroxidation catalyst based on abundant elements and with an optimized structure to simultaneously maximize interaction with the electrolyte and mobility of charge carriers. Using in-situ infrared spectroscopy combined with the nuclear magnetic resonance, branched nickel carbide particles are the first catalyst determined to have nearly 100% electrochemical conversion of methanol to formate without generating detectable CO 2 byproduct. Electrochemical kinetics analysis reveals the optimized reaction conditions and the electrode delivered excellent activities. This work provides a straightforward and cost-efficient way for conversion of organic small molecules and the first direct evidence of a selective formate reaction path.