Nickel-vanadium-cobalt ternary layered double hydroxide for efficient electrocatalytic upgrading of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-furancarboxylic acid at low potential

Electrocatalytic preparation of 2,5-furancarboxylic acid (FDCA) from biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a highly attractive strategy for the development of the bio-renewable polymer industry. However, developing highly efficient catalysts with sufficient oxidation current density and durability remains a challenge. Introducing heteroatoms into layered double hydroxides (LDHs) can modulate the electrocatalysis behavior effectively. Herein, vanadium and cobalt were co-doped into nickel (oxy)hydroxide to construct a NiVCo-LDHs catalyst. With the diatomic synergetic modulation, the as-designed NiVCo-LDHs can electrosynthesize FDCA from HMF at a low potential of 1.376 V vs. RHE and achieve a 93.2-99.7% yield and 86.5-97.8% faradaic efficiency of FDCA during ten consecutive cycles. Such performance is superior to those of most reported nickel-based LDHs for HMF oxidation. Further studies indicate that the introduction of V can provide high intrinsic catalytic activity, mainly due to the enhanced specific surface area, facile electron transfer and abundant active sites. A NiVCo-LDHs electrocatalyst with active oxygen vacancies was constructed for the efficient conversion of HMF to FDCA.