Electrocatalytic hydrogenation of 2-cyclohexen-1-one in a high sulfur environment using a carbon-supported nanostructured tungsten sulfide catalyst

Vitreous carbon supported tungsten sulfide (WS2) nanoparticle catalysts were synthesized by fully sulfiding thin films of W. This support–catalyst combination was shown to be successful at hydrogenating 2-cyclohexen-1-one in the presence of sulfur. A well-known hydrogenation catalyst consisting of a nickel film, used as a baseline, was found to be completely ineffective in an identical solution. Catalyst samples with a nominal W thickness of 2 nm, produced the largest hydrogenation product yields with the highest efficiencies. SEM and XPS analyses confirm that this nominal thickness corresponds to a dense distribution of nano-scale WS2 particles templated on the carbon substrate. We envision the WS2–carbon system becoming a catalyst of choice for electrocatalytic hydrogenation in a sulfur-rich environment.

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► Vitreous-carbon supported WS2 nanoparticle catalysts were synthesized.
► This combination hydrogenated 2-cyclohexen-1-one in the presence of sulfur.
► This system may become the catalyst of choice for sulfur-rich applications.