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• Review Article
• Published: 25 March 2024

Electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation of organic species involving water

• Cuibo Liu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9578-8173 1 ,
• Fanpeng Chen 1 ,
• Bo-Hang Zhao 1 ,
• Yongmeng Wu 1 &
• Bin Zhang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0542-1819 1 , 2  

Nature Reviews Chemistry ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Electrocatalysis
• Structural properties
• Sustainability

Fossil fuel-driven thermochemical hydrogenation and oxidation using high-pressure H 2 and O 2 are still popular but energy-intensive CO 2 -emitting processes. At present, developing renewable energy-powered electrochemical technologies, especially those using clean, safe and easy-to-handle reducing agents and oxidants for organic hydrogenation and oxidation reactions, is urgently needed. Water is an ideal carrier of hydrogen and oxygen. Electrochemistry provides a powerful route to drive water splitting under ambient conditions. Thus, electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation transformations involving water as the hydrogen source and oxidant, respectively, have been developed to be mild and efficient tools to synthesize organic hydrogenated and oxidized products. In this Review, we highlight the advances in water-participating electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation reactions of representative organic molecules. Typical electrode materials, performance metrics and key characterization techniques are firstly introduced. General electrocatalyst design principles and controlling the microenvironment for promoting hydrogenation and oxygenation reactions involving water are summarized. Furthermore, paired hydrogenation and oxidation reactions are briefly introduced before finally discussing the challenges and future opportunities of this research field.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFA1507400 to B.Z.) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22371205 to C.L.).

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Cuibo Liu, Fanpeng Chen, Bo-Hang Zhao, Yongmeng Wu & Bin Zhang

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B.Z. conceived the Review. C.L. conducted the literature search and prepared the manuscript. C.L., F.C. and B.Z. generated the images. Y.W. and B.H.Z. participated in discussions. B.Z. supervised the project and revised the manuscript.

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Liu, C., Chen, F., Zhao, BH. et al. Electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation of organic species involving water. Nat Rev Chem (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-024-00589-z

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-024-00589-z

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