NiFe nanosheets as urea oxidation reaction electrocatalysts for urea removal and energy-saving hydrogen production.

The preparation of high-performance electrocatalysts is a breakthrough to solve the increasingly prominent problems of environmental degradation and energy depletion. Urea oxidation reaction (UOR) plays a vital role in treating urea-rich wastewater and assisting hydrogen production with low energy consumption. To alleviate the sluggish intrinsic reaction kinetic barrier of six-electron transfer involved in UOR, we develop a NiFe ultra-thin two-dimensional nanosheet array supported on nickel foam as UOR electrocatalyst by one-step hydrothermal method. Benefiting from the in-situ synthesis strategy, abundant mesoporous structure, and the electronic structure change of Ni after the introduction of Fe, NiFe nanosheets (NiFe NSs) exhibit remarkable UOR catalytic activity and excellent long-term stability. Moreover, we assemble a two-electrode electrolytic cell with NiFe NSs/NF as the anode. The results show that the cell voltage of urea assisted water electrolysis for hydrogen production decreased by 15.2% rather than the regular water splitting, as well as that the urea concentration in electrolyte is degraded 55.6% after electrolysis for 36 h at 1.70 V. This work indicates a feasibility verification for the electrocatalytic removal of urea in wastewater treatment, and an efficient and energy-saving method for urea-assisted electrolytic hydrogen production based on NiFe nanosheets. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Yongxing Diao, Yaosheng Liu, Guangxing Hu, Yuyan Zhao, Yuhong Qian, Hongda Wang, Yan Shi, Zhuang Li. NiFe nanosheets as urea oxidation reaction electrocatalysts for urea removal and energy-saving hydrogen production. Biosensors & bioelectronics. 2022 Sep 01;211:114380

Mesh Tags

Substances

PMID: 35598552

search → result