The synergistic effect in multi-active site catalysts is difficult to monitor, and the effect of their intrinsic mechanism on their catalytic performance is important but very difficult to understand owing to the large quantities of active species. Based on the results of density functional theory, herein we report the design and synthesis of an oxygen vacancy-abundant spinel-structured MnCo2O4 oxide as a highly efficient catalyst for alcohol oxidation, which highlights the importance of the synergistic effect between oxygen deficiencies and bimetal species.
