Vacancy‐induced catalytic mechanism for alcohol electrooxidation on nickel‐based electrocatalyst

Abstract

Owing to outstanding performances, nickel-based electrocatalysts are commonly used in electrochemical alcohol oxidation reactions (AORs), and the active phase is usually vacancy-rich nickel oxide/hydroxide (NiO_x H_y ) species. However, researchers are not aware of the catalytic role of atom vacancy in AORs. Here, we study vacancy-induced catalytic mechanisms for AORs on NiO_x H_y species. As to AORs on oxygen-vacancy-poor β-Ni(OH)₂ , the only redox mediator is electrooxidation-induced electrophilic lattice oxygen species, which can only catalyze the dehydrogenation process (e.g., the electrooxidation of primary alcohol to carboxylic acid) instead of the C-C bond cleavage. Hence, vicinal diol electrooxidation reaction involving the C-C bond cleavage is not feasible with oxygen-vacancy-poor β-Ni(OH)₂ . Only through oxygen vacancy-induced adsorbed oxygen-mediated mechanism, can oxygen-vacancy-rich NiO_x H_y species catalyze the electrooxidation of vicinal diol to carboxylic acid and formic acid accompanied with the C-C bond cleavage. Crucially, we examine how vacancies and vacancy-induced catalytic mechanisms work during AORs on NiO_x H_y species.