Nitrogen-doped Co3O4 nanowires enable high-efficiency electrochemical oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

Developing highly efficient and cost-effective catalysts for electrochemically oxidizing biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) into value-added 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is of great importance. Herein, we report a controllable nitrogen doping strategy to significantly improve the catalytic activity of Co3O4 nanowires for highly selective electro-oxidation of HMF into FDCA. The nitrogen doping leads to the generation of defects including nitrogen dopants and oxygen vacancies in Co3O4 nanowires, which is conducive to the formation of catalytically active sites. As a result, the electro-oxidation potential for HMF is only 1.38 V (vs. RHE) when the current density reaches 50 mA/cm2. More importantly, the conversion rate of HMF is as high as 99.5%, and the yield of FDCA is up to 96.4%.