Electricity-driven water splitting is a promising approach for cost-effective and environment-friendly hydrogen production. However, the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains a major bottleneck for its industrial application. An alternative strategy to bypass the OER is the electrocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol for promoting hydrogen production, though achieving this efficiently remains challenging. In this study, we introduce a CoV-layered double hydroxide (LDH) designed specifically for the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol. This is achieved by incorporating high valence vanadium into Co(OH)₂, a conventional OER catalyst. Due to the synergistic enhancement in electron and proton transfer processes resulting from vanadium incorporation, the CoV-LDH grown on nickel foam (CoV-LDH/NF) displays outstanding activity and selectivity for the benzyl alcohol oxidation reaction (BOR). Notably, the CoV-LDH/NF achieves current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm⁻² at just 1.28 and 1.31 V (vs. RHE), respectively. Moreover, the CoV-LDH/NF demonstrates remarkable durability, showing no decrease in the electrochemical performance over ten consecutive cycles.

中文翻译：

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钴基LDH中钒的掺入对电催化苯甲醇氧化过程中电子和质子转移的协同效应

电力驱动的水分解是一种具有成本效益且环境友好型制氢的有前途的方法。然而，阳极析氧反应（OER）仍然是其工业应用的主要瓶颈。绕过 OER 的另一种策略是苯甲醇的电催化氧化，以促进氢气的产生，尽管有效实现这一点仍然具有挑战性。在这项研究中，我们引入了一种专门用于苯甲醇选择性氧化的冠状病毒层状双氢氧化物（LDH）。这是通过将高价钒掺入传统 OER 催化剂Co(OH) ₂中来实现的。由于钒的掺入导致电子和质子转移过程的协同增强，在镍泡沫上生长的 CoV-LDH (CoV-LDH/NF) 对苯甲醇氧化反应 (BOR) 显示出出色的活性和选择性。值得注意的是，CoV-LDH/NF在仅 1.28 和 1.31 V（相对于RHE）下分别实现了 10 和 100 mA cm ^-2的电流密度。此外，CoV-LDH/NF 表现出卓越的耐用性，在连续十个循环中电化学性能没有下降。