Oxygen Vacancy‐Engineered NiMo/Biochar for Energy‐Efficient Hydrogen Production Coupled With Ethylene Glycol Valorization

Plasma etching has emerged as an effective strategy for optimizing the electronic structure of non‐precious metal electrocatalysts to enhance alkaline water splitting performance. In this study, a biomass‐derived carbon‐supported NiMo composite (NiMo‐BC‐Pe) is synthesized via plasma etching, introducing abundant oxygen vacancies and lattice strain that substantially improve hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. NiMo‐BC‐Pe exhibits exceptional HER performance with an ultralow overpotential of −0.162 V at 100 mA cm −2 and achieves an industrial‐grade current density of 902 mA cm −2 at 2.0 V in a membrane electrode assembly. Notably, by replacing the conventional oxygen evolution reaction with ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR), the constructed HER||EGOR hybrid system significantly reduces the overall electrolysis voltage while enabling the co‐production of high‐value glycolic acid (GA). This system achieves a GA Faradaic efficiency of 92.3% at 500 mA cm −2 and maintains over 90% efficiency during 300 h of continuous operation. This work presents a promising energy‐saving pathway for the collaborative production of green hydrogen and value‐added chemicals.