Summary
Furfural is a pivotal renewable platform molecule obtained from the chemical breakdown of hemicellulose. While it has traditionally been valorized to value-added chemicals through catalytic hydrogenation in biorefineries, its direct electrocatalytic hydrogenation presents attractive advantages. This article describes the significant improvements brought by the structuring of copper cathodes applied to this process in terms of activity and selectivity. We show that structured electrodes are capable of converting furfural to furfuryl alcohol with 100% selectivity at potentials as high as −0.2 V vs the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in neutral conditions (pH 7.0). Moreover, the same electrode can selectively generate either furfuryl alcohol or 2-methylfuran in acidic conditions (pH 1.0),
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