Engineered porous Co–Ni alloy on carbon cloth as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for glucose electrolysis in alkaline environment

Toward water splitting, the cell voltage is limited by the sluggish anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), requiring a much higher overpotential than cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we replace the OER with more favorable glucose oxidation reaction (GOR), that is glucose electrolysis in alkaline environment, which requires a much lower cell voltage than that of water electrolysis. The surface of porous Co–Ni alloy on carbon cloth is partial oxidized, serving as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for both GOR and HER. The active sites, conductivity, intrinsic activity and stability can be synergistically improved with the engineered porous Co–Ni alloy on carbon cloth. In result, the cell voltage is as low as 1.39 V when the current density reaches to 10 mA cm−2 in glucose electrolysis. While without the glucose in the electrolyte, the voltage reaches as high as 1.65 V. This work can make a contribution to develop the other highly active and robust bifunctional electrocatalysts for glucose or similar organic molecular electrolysis.