Hierarchical Ni-Mo-P nanoarrays toward efficient urea oxidation reaction

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry Vol. 51; no. 47; pp. 1859 - 1867
• Main Authors: Li, Jing, Hu, Feng, Hei, Jinpei, Liu, Guoan, Wei, Hui, Wang, Nannan, Wei, Hehe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 06.12.2022
• Subjects: Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Durability; Electronic structure; Heterostructures; Hydrogen production; Industrial development; Molybdenum; Nickel; Oxidation; Oxygen evolution reactions; Synergistic effect; Ureas; Water splitting
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/d2dt02983a

The urea oxidation reaction (UOR), which possesses a low theoretical potential and superior kinetics, is an attractive substitute for the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in overall water splitting; however, the implementation of hydrogen production in overall urea splitting is impeded by the deficiency of highly efficient, durable and cost-effective catalysts. Herein, we fabricated an Ni 2 P-MoP 2 heterostructure with a hierarchical structure grown on carbon paper (Ni-Mo-P/CP), which exhibited robust activity and outstanding durability for the electrocatalytic oxidation of urea. The Ni-Mo-P/CP catalyst possessed an ultralow potential of 1.39 V to obtain the current density of 100 mA cm −2 , small Tafel slope (27 mV dec −1 ) and long-term durability with almost no decay within 15 h. The experimental characterization revealed that the optimized electronic structure and the synergistic effect of abundant exposed active sites in the Ni-Mo-P/CP catalyst contribute to the efficient UOR catalytic activity. This work enriches the candidate catalysts for the UOR and promotes the industrial development of hydrogen production. Ni 2 P-MoP 2 heterostructure with hierarchical structure grown on carbon paper (Ni-Mo-P/CP) exhibits robust activity for electrocatalytic urea oxidation compared to the oxide evolution reaction.