Defect-rich PtCo multilayer nanobowls for the efficient glycerol electrooxidation and coupled hydrogen evolution

A facile one-step strategy synthesizes defect-rich PtCo MNs with unique bowl-shaped metallene architecture. • PtCo MNs achieve outstanding formate Faradaic efficiency of 95.89% for glycerol electrooxidation under alkaline conditions. • The assembled GOR||HER electrolyzer realizes energy-saving co-production of formate and hydrogen at low cell voltages. • DFT and experimental characterizations reveal Pt‑Co electronic modulation optimizes intermediate adsorption and catalytic kinetics. The electrocatalytic glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) is important for turning excess glycerol from biodiesel byproducts into valuable chemicals. However, the process inevitably generates C 1 -C 3 byproducts, resulting in compromised Faradaic efficiency (FE) and poor selectivity toward target compounds. Remarkable electrocatalytic performance in glycerol conversion is achieved using surface-defective PtCo layered metallene nanobowls (PtCo MNs). This novel catalyst facilitates the conversion of glycerol to formate production with an outstanding Faradaic efficiency ( FE formate ) of 95.89% and a selectivity of 92.36%. The results obtained from density functional theory prove that the addition of Co element can effectively regulate the electronic configuration, promote electron transfer and accelerate the progress of the GOR reaction. This work creates a method for making layered nanobowl structures and enables the design of next-generation electrocatalytic systems. Download: Download high-res image (334KB) Download: Download full-size image