Multimetallic Prussian Blue Analogue Nanoparticles for Oxygen Evolution Reaction and Efficient Benzyl Alcohol Oxidation

Electrocatalytic alcohol assisted water splitting has attained immense interest to improve the energy efficiency of water splitting. A series of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been employed to replace the anodic oxygen evolution reaction with electrocatalytic alcohol oxidation. In this work, we have developed a multimetallic Prussian blue analogue (MnFeCoNiCu-PBA) nanoparticles using a room temperature method and utilized it for anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and benzyl alcohol (BA) oxidation. The multimetallic composition resulted in the enhanced synergistic effect and increased the electrochemical surface area and electronic conductivity to improve the catalytic performance. Interestingly, MnFeCoNiCu-PBA nanoparticles exhibited a 100 mA cm –2 current density for BA oxidation at 1.57 V vs RHE, which was lower than that of OER (1.67 V vs RHE), with 98.9% Faradaic efficiency and 100% selectivity for benzoic acid production. Besides, the hydrogen production was improved by 2.2 times with the BA oxidation compared to the OER. During the electrocatalytic BA oxidation, multimetallic PBA was electrochemically reconstructed into an active metal hydroxide-(oxy)hydroxide catalyst with high valent metal ions, further improving the activity.