Defect Engineering of Metal Organic Framework Derived Electrocatalyst for Electrooxidation of 1,4‐Butanediol to Succinic Acid

The electrocatalytic upgrading of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT)-derived 1,4-butanediol (BDO) into succinic acid (SA) offers a sustainable approach for converting waste into valuable chemicals. However, designing efficient electrocatalysts for the effective management of sequential reaction steps to achieve rapid and selective conversion of BDO is challenging. Herein, we report a 2D ultrathin electrocatalyst with Ni vacancy derived from a typical metal organic framework of Ni-benzenedicarboxylic acid (Ni BDC) by an in situ electro-activation method for selective electrocatalytic oxidation of BDO to SA. Specifically, the as-developed catalyst achieves 2.4 fold greater production rate and higher Faradaic efficiency (FE) compared with the traditional Ni(OH)₂ electrocatalyst (99% vs. 37%) at 1.57 V vs. RHE. Moreover, this performance can be extended to other alcohol electrooxidation reactions because of the formation of active NiOOH species induced by in situ generated metal vacancy, which optimized the adsorption of substrates and intermediates. As a proof of concept, we successfully obtained the BDO from PBT and then oxidized it to SA by a homemade flow electrolyzer. These findings highlight a sustainable and promising method for converting waste plastics into valuable chemical products.