Regulating Adsorption Behavior of Reactants on NiO/CuO/Co3O4 Surface by Electronic Effect to Promote Electrosynthesis

Abstract Developing efficient electrooxidation 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) catalysts with high selectivity and fast reaction kinetic is challenging. The HMF oxidation reaction (HMFOR) involves the adsorption of HMF and OH − on the catalyst, thus understanding the adsorption behavior between the catalyst surface and reactants is vital. In this work, by studying the relationship between HMFOR performance and the adsorption behavior of reactants on different transition metal oxides (TMOs), it is discovered that the catalytic performance of TMOs is related to the adsorption capacity of OH − and HMF simultaneously. Subsequently, TMOs with different HMF and OH − adsorption abilities are coupled to further optimize the catalytic performance of HMFOR. Experimental and theoretical calculation results indicate that the electronic interactions between different TMOs can regulate the substrate adsorption behavior and electron transfer ability of the catalysts, which is beneficial for HMFOR. Among them, due to the strong interaction between the three components optimizes the adsorption capacity for HMF and OH − , NiO/CuO/Co 3 O 4 exhibits the best HMFOR performance with FDCA selectivity of 99.6 % and formation rate of 16.45 mmol gcat −1 h −1 . This work provides a design principle for HMFOR catalysts by modulating the adsorption behavior of reaction molecules.