Boosting 5-hydroxymethylfurfural electrooxidation in neutral electrolytes via TEMPO-enhanced dehydrogenation and OH adsorption

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) electrooxidation in neutral conditions is a promising strategy to suppress the formation of humins and corrosive effects on electrochemical devices. However, scarce studies have been reported media due deficiency electrophilic oxygen (eg OH–) required for activation HMF. Herein, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)/Co3O4 was utilized co-catalyze HMF media, successfully achieving 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) with yield > 99%. It found that TEMPO could promote dehydrogenation 2,5-diformylfuran (DFF) simultaneously activated water via hydrogen-bonding interactions. As result, OH* electrolytes favored, which absorbed by electrogenerated active Co species facilitate subsequent conversion formyl-group-involved intermediates FDCA. This work provides current understanding catalytic mechanism HMFOR guides design highly efficient electrocatalysts biomass upgrading.