In noble metal-based fuel cells,
adsorbed carbon monoxide plays
a vital role in hindering their efficiency. To alleviate this problem,
constructing non-noble metals, particularly selective toward formate
formation, will be an ideal solution. Further, to improve the electrochemical
properties, we deliberately introduced point defects, namely, cationic
vacancies. Herein, we have chosen boron as a dopant that introduces
the cationic vacancy in copper cobalt oxide (B/CuCo2O4) and improves the methanol absorption capability. Our synthesized
B/CuCo2O4 electrocatalyst showed 91 mA cm–2 (∼4-fold) higher current density than the
pristine electrocatalyst. Most importantly, unlike noble metals, our
synthesized electrocatalyst was selective toward formate formation
and obtained a faradic efficiency of 43% as demonstrated by NMR, and
the reaction pathway was predicted by density calculation theory.