Sulfur‐Vacancy Engineering Accelerates Rapid Surface Reconstruction in Ni‐Co Bimetal Sulfide Nanosheet for Urea Oxidation Electrocatalysis

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 20; no. 42; pp. e2403311 - n/a
• Main Authors: Li, Haoyuan, Pu, Yujuan, Li, Wenhao, Yan, Zitong, Deng, Ruojing, Shi, Fanyue, Zhao, Chenhao, Zhang, Youkui, Duan, Tao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.10.2024
• Subjects: Bimetals; Cobalt sulfide; Density functional theory; Electrocatalysis; Electrocatalysts; electrochemical reconstruction; Electrolysis; Hydrogen production; Metal foams; Nanosheets; Oxidation; Raman spectra; Raman spectroscopy; Sulfur; sulfur‐vacancy; urea oxidation electrocatalysis; Ureas; electrochemical reconstruction; Raman spectroscopy; urea oxidation electrocatalysis; sulfur‐vacancy
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202403311
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829

Developing a highly efficient catalyst for electrocatalytic urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is not only beneficial for the degradation of urea pollutants in wastewater but also provides a benign route for hydrogen production. Herein, a sulfur‐vacancy (Sv) engineering is proposed to accelerate the formation of metal (oxy)hydroxide on the surface of Ni‐Co bimetal sulfide nanosheet arrays on nickel foam (Sv‐CoNiS@NF) for boosting the urea oxidation electrocatalysis. As a result, the obtained Sv‐CoNiS@NF demonstrates an outstanding electrocatalytic UOR performance, which requires a low potential of only 1.397 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode to achieve the current density of 100 mA cm−2. The ex situ Raman spectra and density functional theory calculations reveal the key roles of the Sv site and Co9S8 in promoting the electrocatalytic UOR performance. This work provides a new strategy for accelerating the transformation of electrocatalysts to active metallic (oxy)hydroxide for urea electrolysis via engineering the surface vacancies. This work proposes a sulfur‐vacancy (Sv) engineering to accelerate the formation of metal (oxy)hydroxide on the surface of Ni‐Co bimetal sulfide nanosheet arrays on nickel foam for boosting urea oxidation electrocatalysis. The abundant Sv combining the unique heterointerface structure in the CoNiS nanosheet not only provides reaction sites but also regulates the electron structure for electrocatalytic urea oxidation.