Construction of ultra-thin nanosheets with Ni-O-Co electron channels to accelerate electron transfer in electrooxidation of glucose to formic acid

The electrocatalytic oxidation of biomass-derived glucose to formic acid (FA) represents a sustainable route for biomass valorization, yet achieving simultaneous high selectivity and current density remains challenging due to sluggish electron transfer and competing side reactions. Herein, bimetallic oxide ultra-thin nanosheets grown on Ni foam (NiCoO-NS/NF) with established Ni-O-Co electronic channels are fabricated via a facile Cl − corrosion and calcination strategy. The ultra-thin nanosheet structure offers abundant exposed active sites, and the introduced Co 2+ with the unique valence electronic configuration is able to drive the partial electron migration from Ni to Co via the bridging μ-O ligand, forming Ni-O-Co electronic channels. This significantly facilitates electron transport and promotes rapid NiOOH active species formation, as evidenced by in situ spectroscopy measurements and computational analyses. Remarkably, NiCoO-NS/NF exhibits an exceptional GOR current density of 222.70 mA/cm 2 at 1.4 V vs RHE, surpassing NiO-NS/NF and bare Ni foam by 2.29-fold and 7.53-fold, respectively. The enhanced kinetics suppress non-Faradaic degradation, delivering a high Faradaic efficiency beyond 90.00 % within 1 h in 0.1 M glucose. This work provides a novel strategy for constructing electron-channel-rich nanostructures to effectively enhance the performance of glucose electrooxidation over Ni-based catalysts, advancing the development of biomass upgrading.