Tragacanth Gum Hydrogel-Derived Trimetallic Nanoparticles Supported on Porous Carbon Catalyst for Urea Electrooxidation
Badr M. Thamer, Meera Moydeen Abdulhameed, Mohamed H. El‐Newehy
Abstract
The fabrication of electrocatalysts with high catalytic activity, high durability and low cost towards urea oxidation by a facile method is a great challenge. In this study, non-precious NiCoFe trimetallic supported on porous carbon (NiCoFe@PC) was prepared via gelation and pyrolysis method, presenting a remarkable electrocatalytic activity with low onset potential for urea oxidation in an alkaline medium. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to clarify the morphology of the NiCoFe@PC nanostructure and its nanoparticle size of 17.77 nm. The prepared catalyst with the composition ratio of 24.67, 5.92 and 5.11% for Ni, Fe and Co, respectively, with highly crystalline nanoparticles, fixed on porous carbon, according to energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The FeCoNi@PC catalyst showed a catalytic activity of 44.65 mA/cm2 at 0.57 V vs. Ag/AgCl and a low onset potential of 218 mV, which is superior to many other transition bi/trimetallic-based catalysts previously reported.