@article{Lin2025, 
author = {Jialong Lin and Xinlin Wang and Bingxue Cheng and Ruiheng Zhou and Yuhang Li and Tamao Ishida and Guangli Xiu and Toru Murayama and Mingyue Lin},
title = {Boosting methanol electro-oxidation to formate by trace iron induced suppression of cobalt(IV) formation},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {5},
pages = {94907389},
keywords = {electrocatalysis, formate, Fe doping, cobalt phosphate, methanol electro-oxidation reaction},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907389},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907389},
abstract = {Converting methanol to high-value formate through electrochemical methods can significantly reduce the energy consumption associated with conventional production processes. In this study, we directly synthesized iron-doped cobalt phosphate (Fe-CoPO) on nickel foam (NF) to achieve excellent activity for the methanol electro-oxidation reaction (MOR). Our results demonstrated that Fe-CoPO produced a current density of 100 mA·cm−2 at a significantly low operating potential of 1.436 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) and operated steadily for 16 h at this current density with a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 97%. Furthermore, Fe-CoPO maintained a high FE of 100% even at an extremely high current density of 300 mA·cm−2 for 8 h. We found that the high MOR activity of Fe-CoPO results from electrochemical reconstruction to generate the Co2+/3+–O bond. The heterogeneous interface between Fe and Co inhibits the formation of Co4+, which significantly enhances the MOR activity. Thus, this work not only provides insights into the mechanism of MOR over Co-based catalysts but also offers a novel direction for developing highly active MOR catalysts.}
}