Executive Summary : | Hydrogen, with its high energy density, has become an efficient alternative energy source. The glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) coupled with hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has gained interest due to its low energy barrier of -3.5 kWh or Nm³, making it economically attractive and facile. However, the overall water splitting to H2 and O2 requires more than 5.5 kWh or Nm³ by any electrolysis method. To address this problem, a project has been proposed to design a series of rare earth metal doped Co spinel nanostructure @porous carbon [RE or Co3O₄@pC, RE = Ce, Gd, sm, and Ho] bifunctional materials for electrocatalysis (EC) for simultaneous GOR and HER with formic acid or formate as the GOR product. The porous carbon template helps discriminate products based on mass-diffusion and channelize the adsorption of intermediates on the metal active sites. The doping of RE atoms with 4f electrons in the tetrahedral (II) or octahedral (III) sites of the spinel nanoclusters creates crystal defects that act as active sites for dehydrogenation, dehydration, and C-C bond scission processes. The size of the materials is constrained to nano-dimension for facile photon transfer on the catalyst surface through proton tunneling. The experimental data will be explained through DFT calculations, highlighting the importance of this cost-effective process for managing industrial byproduct and fuel gas generation. |