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.