Engineering Lattice Planes of NiCo-LDH Ultrathin Sheets for Boosting Methanol/Ethanol Oxidation Performance

Alcohol oxidation reactions are known to be significantin theadvancement of sustainable, renewable energy sources. Searching forcatalytic materials with powerful, reliable, and economic performanceis of great importance. Due to their excellent intrinsic performance,outstanding stability, and inexpensiveness, ultrathin layered doublehydroxides (LDHs) are considered to be competitive electrocatalysts.However, the electrocatalytic property of ultrathin LDHs is stillconfined by the predominant exposure of the (003) basal plane. Hence,we have engineered active edge facets in ultrathin NiCo-LDHs, whichpossess abundant oxygen vacancies (V-O), by a facile one-stepstrategy. Experimental results show that NiCo-LDH-E synthesized inethanol demonstrates an ultrathin structure, rich oxygen vacancies,and more active facets, exhibiting a higher electrochemical activearea of 3.25 cm(2), which is 1.18 times that of NiCo-LDH-W(2.75 cm(2)). In addition, the current density of NiCo-LDH-Ein methanol and ethanol oxidation reactions could reach 159.5 and136.3 mA cm(-2), which are 2.8 and 1.7 times thatof NiCo-LDH-W, respectively. UltrathinNi-Co layered double hydroxides with highly activeedge facets are developed for highly efficient methanol oxidationreaction and ethanol oxidation reaction.

Automated summary

This study introduces active edge facets with abundant oxygen vacancies into nanoscale NiCo-LDHs, resulting in higher electrocatalytic surface area and current density for efficient methanol and ethanol oxidation reactions.