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RSC Advances
of PhCH2Br were examined in detail while keeping other
conditions consistent. Among the Ag/OMC samples, Ag/OMC-III
possessed the optimal composition and maximum Ag-ECSA. Ag/
OMC-III displayed outstanding electrocatalytic performance
with a maximum bibenzyl yield of 98%. The results indicate that
functionalizing OMC by doping with metal nanoparticles
provides a promising opportunity for the electrocatalytic
reduction of organic halides.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conicts to declare.
Acknowledgements
Fig. 6 Reuse of the Ag/OMC-III cathode. Reaction conditions are
given in Table 2, entry 12.
Financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of
China (21773071 and 21673078) and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities is gratefully acknowledged.
Under consistent conditions (except the electrolytic poten-
tial), the yield of benzyl bromide to bibenzyl was maximized
(76%) at ꢁ0.65 V on Ag/OMC-III (Table 2 entry 5). The yield was
lower at ꢁ0.55 V (Table 2 entry 7), likely because it is more
difficult reduce the substrate at this potential. As the potential
became more negative, the yield of the coupled product rst
increased and then decreased (Table 2 entries 7–9). The yield of
bibenzyl increased to 98% when the amount of charge passing
through the electrolysis cell (Q) was increased to 1.5 F molꢁ1
(Table 2 entry 12). The yield of bibenzyl increased with
increasing Q before 1.5 F molꢁ1 (Table 2 entries 10–12); aer
that point, the yield remained unchanged with increasing Q
(Table 2 entry 13). To test the catalytic ability upon recycling, the
Ag/OMC-III electrode was washed repeatedly with MeCN, dried
at 100 ꢂC, and reused under the same conditions. Fig. 6 shows
that the yield of bibenzyl remained around 94–98% without any
appreciable reduction in catalytic activity for eight reuses,
indicating that Ag/OMC possessed remarkable reusability. The
surface morphology of the Ag/OMC-III electrode was charac-
terized by TEM aer eight reuses (Fig. S10†). The highly ordered
mesostructure of the Ag/OMC-III composite was retained aer
repeated use, and the average nanoparticle diameter did not
change obviously, indicating that the carbon matrix immobi-
lized the Ag nanoparticles and limited their agglomeration
during the reaction.
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