Amorphous Nickel Oxide as Efficient Electrocatalyst for Urea Oxidation Reaction

Abstract

Amorphous nickel oxide loaded on nickel foam ( a -NiO x /NF) is synthesized via a facile photochemical metal-organic deposition (PMOD) approach and evaluated as catalyst for urea oxidation reaction (UOR). It exhibits superior activity with current density of 1 and 10 mA cm −2 at 1.240 (0.002) and 1.256 (0.001) V vs. RHE in 1.0 M KOH and 0.5 M urea solution, surpassing most of reported UOR catalysts. It also shows decent durability at 100 mA cm −2 . The UOR mechanism exploration reveals that the rate-determining step is the removal of the last proton from the amino-group. This work demonstrates that amorphous materials can be efficient electrocatalysts for UOR which enables efficient H 2 production.

Topics & Concepts