Cobalt-Doped Ultrathin Ni(OH)₂ Nanosheet Array @NiCo Alloy toward an Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction and the Electrooxidation of Phenoxyethanol

The large theoretical thermodynamics potential and slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) result in the high power consumption for water electrolysis. The development of a high-performance OER catalyst and replacing the OER with a thermodynamically more favorable reaction can both reduce power consumption. Herein, the Ni_xCo_y(OH)₂ nanosheet @NiCo alloy was fabricated by the electrodeposition and electrochemical activation to be bifunctional catalysts for the OER and phenoxyethanol oxidation reaction (POR). Rather, low potentials of 1.47 and 1.3 V (vs RHE) were needed to reach 10 mA cm^-2 for the OER and POR, respectively. The Co doping can adjust the adsorption energy of OER intermediates and phenoxyethanol to improve the OER and POR performance. This work proves that Co doping tunes the electronic structure of Ni(OH)₂ and provides a new strategy to achieve highly selective production of phenoxyacetic acid combined with low-energy-consumption hydrogen production.