Nickel foam supported Mn-doped NiFe-LDH nanosheet arrays as efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation and hydrogen evolution

Electrochemical upgrading methanol into value-added formate at the anode in alkaline media enables the boosting production of hydrogen fuel at the cathode with saved energy. To achieve such a cost-effective and efficient electrocatalytic process, herein this work presents a Mn-doped nickel iron layered double hydroxides supported on nickel foam, derived from a simple hydrothermal synthesis. This developed electrocatalyst could act as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for methanol-to-formate with a high faradaic efficiency of nearly 100 %, and for hydrogen evolution reaction, at an external potential of 1.5 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Additionally, a current density of 131.1 mA cm−2 with a decay of merely 12.2 % over 120 h continuous long-term testing was generated in co-electrocatalysis of water/methanol solution. Further density functional theoretical calculations were used to unravel the methanol-to-formate reaction mechanism arising from the doping of Fe and/or Mn. This work offers a good example of co-electrocatalysis to produce formate and green hydrogen fuel using a bifunctional electrocatalyst.