Abstract
Industrial-level alkynols electrocatalytic semi-hydrogenation using seawater as hydrogen source offers a sustainable alternative to conventional thermocatalytic routes, yet remains limited by the lack of efficient and robust electrocatalysts. Here, we report the synthesis of Nd1Gd1 dual atomic site on metallene for co-production of alkenol and magnesium hydroxide in the seawater system. Nd1Gd1Pd metallene achieves a selectivity of ≈96.7% and a Faradaic efficiency of ≈87.3% for the conversion of 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol to 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol at −150 mA cm-2 in a flow-cell system, and maintains ≈98.0% selectivity at 1.2 A for over 300 h of continuous operation, achieving the long-term stable co-electrosynthesis of alkenols and magnesium hydroxide in natural seawater at industrial-scale currents. Techno-economic analysis reveals a projected product revenue of at least $8,499 per ton of 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol, underlining the industrial viability of this process. Mechanism investigations illustrate dual hydrogen-spillover and co-catalytic effects on Nd1Gd1Pd, promoting migration-reaction coupling mechanism of reactive *H to synergize hydrogenation. This work provides a seawater electrocatalytic semi-hydrogenation system and proposes an optimization strategy by atomically engineered dual hydrogen-spillover effect.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided as a Source data file in the Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.
References
Bu, J. et al. Selective electrocatalytic semihydrogenation of acetylene impurities for the production of polymer-grade ethylene. Nat. Catal. 4, 557–564 (2021).
Zhang, L. et al. Deprotonated 2-thiolimidazole serves as a metal-free electrocatalyst for selective acetylene hydrogenation. Nat. Chem. 16, 893–900 (2024).
Bu, J. et al. Highly selective electrocatalytic alkynol semi-hydrogenation for continuous production of alkenols. Nat. Commun. 14, 1533 (2023).
Gao, Y. et al. Electrocatalytic semi-hydrogenation of alkynes using water as the hydrogen source. Nat. Protoc. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-025-01230-z (2025).
Zhao, Y. et al. Dopant- and surfactant-tuned electrode-electrolyte interface enabling efficient alkynol semi-hydrogenation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 145, 6516–6525 (2023).
Tan, Q. et al. Tandem electrocatalytic alkyne semihydrogenation over bicomponent catalysts through hydrogen spillover. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 63, e202400483 (2024).
Li, S. et al. Green electrosynthesis of hydroxylamines via CuS suppressing N horizontal line O bond cleavage. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 64, e202507853 (2025).
Zhu, K. et al. Unraveling the role of interfacial water structure in electrochemical semihydrogenation of alkynes. ACS Catal. 12, 4840–4847 (2022).
Liu, C., Chen, F., Zhao, B. H., Wu, Y. & Zhang, B. Electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation of organic species involving water. Nat. Rev. Chem. 8, 277–293 (2024).
Fan, R. et al. Ultrastable electrocatalytic seawater splitting at ampere-level current density. Nat. Sustain. 7, 158–167 (2024).
Chen, L. et al. Seawater electrolysis for fuels and chemicals production: fundamentals, achievements, and perspectives. Chem. Soc. Rev. 53, 7455–7488 (2024).
Cai, L. et al. Atomically asymmetrical Ir-O-Co sites enable efficient chloride-mediated ethylene electrooxidation in neutral seawater. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 64, e202417092 (2025).
Huang, L., Bao, D., Jiang, Y., Zheng, Y. & Qiao, S. Z. Electrocatalytic acetylene hydrogenation in concentrated seawater at industrial current densities. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 63, e202405943 (2024).
Huang, L. et al. Ethylene electrooxidation to 2-chloroethanol in acidic seawater with natural chloride participation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 145, 15565–15571 (2023).
Yi, L. et al. Supersolidophobic Pt catalyst for long-term natural seawater electrolysis with hydrogen production and magnesium extraction. Nat. Commun. 16, 11493 (2025).
Yi, L. et al. Solidophobic surface for electrochemical extraction of high-valued Mg(OH)2 coupled with H2 production from seawater. Nano Lett. 24, 5920–5928 (2024).
Liang, J. et al. Electroreduction of alkaline/natural seawater: self-cleaning Pt/carbon cathode and on-site co-synthesis of H2 and Mg hydroxide nanoflakes. Chem 10, 3067–3087 (2024).
Yong, M. et al. Sustainable lithium extraction and magnesium hydroxide co-production from salt-lake brines. Nat. Sustain. 7, 1662–1671 (2024).
Kang, J. et al. Interfacial asymmetrically coordinated Zn-MOF for high-efficiency electrosynthetic oxime. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 64, e202419550 (2025).
Deng, K. et al. Breaking the energy linear relationships between C identical with C and C horizontal line C bonds over porous intermetallic Pd2Ga metallene boosting alkynol semihydrogenation. ACS Nano 20, 2311–2322 (2026).
Mao, Q. et al. Atomically dispersed Cu coordinated Rh metallene arrays for simultaneously electrochemical aniline synthesis and biomass upgrading. Nat. Commun. 14, 5679 (2023).
Liao, P. et al. Cu-Bi bimetallic catalysts derived from metal-organic framework arrays on copper foam for efficient glycine electrosynthesis. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 64, e202417130 (2025).
Barraza-Fierro, J. I. et al. Modeling electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results of Cu and Cu-thiosemicarbizide-boron nitride nanosheets electrodes in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution, based on an electrochemical reaction mechanism. Crystals 13, 809 (2023).
Sha, Q. et al. 10,000-h-stable intermittent alkaline seawater electrolysis. Nature 639, 360–367 (2025).
Yang, J. Y. et al. Electrochemical corrosion resistance of the amorphous and crystalline Pd-based alloys in simulated seawater. Mater. Corros. 69, 1509–1515 (2018).
Mezger, R. P., Vrijhoef, M. M. A. & Greener, E. H. Corrosion resistance of three high-palladium alloys. Dent. Mater. 1, 177–179 (1985).
Prabhu, P. & Lee, J. M. Metallenes as functional materials in electrocatalysis. Chem. Soc. Rev. 50, 6700–6719 (2021).
Zhou, C. et al. Oxophilic gallium single atoms bridged ruthenium clusters for practical anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer. Nat. Commun. 15, 6741 (2024).
Li, P., Qi, Z. & Yan, D. Rare earth Er-Nd dual single-atomic catalysts for efficient visible-light induced CO2 reduction to CnH2n+1OH (n=1, 2). Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 63, e202411000 (2024).
Feng, J. et al. Improving CO2-to-C2+ product electroreduction efficiency via atomic lanthanide dopant-induced tensile-strained CuOx Catalysts. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 145, 9857–9866 (2023).
Deng, K. et al. Hydrogen spillover effect tuning the rate-determining step of hydrogen evolution over Pd/Ir hetero-metallene for industry-level current density. Appl. Catal. B Environ. Energy 352, 124047 (2024).
Zhou, Y. et al. Alternating pulse driven periodic reactivation of high-entropy mesoporous film boosts continuous membrane-free PET waste upcycling coupled with H2 production. Adv. Funct. Mater. 36, e11835 (2025).
Chen, L. et al. Promoting electrocatalytic methanol oxidation of platinum nanoparticles by cerium modification. Nano Energy 73, 104784 (2020).
Hu, J. et al. Neodymium-doped IrO2 electrocatalysts supported on titanium plates for enhanced chlorine evolution reaction performance. ChemElectroChem 8, 1204–1210 (2021).
Wang, X. et al. Embedding oxophilic rare-earth single atom in platinum nanoclusters for efficient hydrogen electro-oxidation. Nat. Commun. 14, 3767 (2023).
Li, A. et al. Atomically dispersed hexavalent iridium oxide from MnO2 reduction for oxygen evolution catalysis. Science 384, 666–670 (2024).
Poerwoprajitno, A. R. et al. A single-Pt-atom-on-Ru-nanoparticle electrocatalyst for CO-resilient methanol oxidation. Nat. Catal. 5, 231–237 (2022).
Li, J. et al. Sustainable oxime production via the electrosynthesis of hydroxylamine in a free state. Nat. Synth. 4, 1598–1609 (2025).
Xian, J. et al. Electrocatalytic synthesis of essential amino acids from nitric oxide using atomically dispersed Fe on N-doped carbon. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 62, e202304007 (2023).
Guan, S., Attard, G. A. & Wain, A. J. Observation of substituent effects in the electrochemical adsorption and hydrogenation of alkynes on Pt{hkl} using SHINERS. ACS Catal. 10, 10999–11010 (2020).
Fan, C. et al. Neodymium-evoked valence electronic modulation to balance reversible oxygen electrocatalysis. Adv. Energy Mater. 13, 2203244 (2022).
Kondo, J. N. et al. Pd–H species on electrode stabilized by solvent co-adsorption: observation by operando IR spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem. C 126, 19376–19385 (2022).
Zhao, R. et al. Pd single atoms guided proton transfer along an interfacial hydrogen bond network for efficient electrochemical hydrogenation. Sci. Adv. 11, eadu1602 (2025).
Yan, Y. et al. Nonredox trivalent nickel catalyzing nucleophilic electrooxidation of organics. Nat. Commun. 14, 7987 (2023).
Kresse, G. & Furthmuller, J. Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set. Comput. Mater. Sci. 6, 15–50 (1996).
Gauthier, J. A. et al. Unified approach to implicit and explicit solvent simulations of electrochemical reaction energetics. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 15, 6895–6906 (2019).
Mathew, K., Sundararaman, R., Letchworth-Weaver, K., Arias, T. A. & Hennig, R. G. Implicit solvation model for density-functional study of nanocrystal surfaces and reaction pathways. J. Chem. Phys. 140, 084106 (2014).
Kresse, G. & Joubert, D. From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method. Phys. Rev. B 59, 1758–1775 (1999).
Grimme, S., Antony, J., Ehrlich, S. & Krieg, H. A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu. J. Chem. Phys. 132, 154104 (2010).
Hammer, B., Hansen, L. B. & Nørskov, J. K. Improved adsorption energetics within density-functional theory using revised Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functionals. Phys. Rev. B 59, 7413–7421 (1999).
Monkhorst, H. J. & Pack, J. D. Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations. Phys. Rev. B 13, 5188–5192 (1976).
Ho, K. M., Fu, C. L., Harmon, B. N., Weber, W. & Hamann, D. R. Vibrational frequencies and structural properties of transition metals via total-energy calculations. Phys. Rev. Lett. 49, 673–676 (1982).
Henkelman, G., Uberuaga, B. P. & Jónsson, H. A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths. J. Chem. Phys. 113, 9901–9904 (2000).
Momma, K. & Izumi, F. VESTA 3 for three-dimensional visualization of crystal, volumetric and morphology data. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 44, 1272–1276 (2011).
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under grant no. LR24B060001 (H.J.W.), and National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant no. 22572173 (L.W.), 22478345 (H.J.W.). Crystal structure visualizations were generated using the VESTA software.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
H.J.W., L.W., and Q.M. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. H.J.W., L.W. supervised the project. Q.M., W.X.W., and R.Y. carried out catalyst synthesis and electrochemical experiments. K.D., H.J.Y. performed structural characterizations and analyzed XANES and EXAFS data. R.Y. performed and analyzed DFT calculations. Q.M., W.X.W., and R.Y. conducted in situ FTIR and EPR measurements. H.J.W., L.W., and Q.M. analyzed the results and wrote the paper. W.Z.L., S.G. helped with the revision of the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Communications thanks Nikolay Kornienko, Sang Uck Lee, Guangqin Li and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Source data
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Mao, Q., Wang, W., Yang, R. et al. Industrial-level co-electrosynthesis of alkenol and Mg(OH)2 from seawater over Nd1Gd1 dual atomic site on metallene. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71588-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71588-5
