Ni–Mo–O nanorod-derived composite catalysts for efficient alkaline water-to-hydrogen conversion via urea electrolysis
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- 27 April 2018
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Energy & Environmental Science
- Vol. 11 (7), 1890-1897
- https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ee00521d
Abstract
Photo/electrochemical splitting of water to hydrogen (H2) fuel is a sustainable way of meeting our energy demands at no environmental cost, but significant challenges remain: for example, the sluggish anodic reaction imposes a considerable overpotential requirement. By contrast, urea electrolysis offers the prospect of energy-saving H2 production together with urea-rich wastewater purification, whereas the lack of inexpensive and efficient urea oxidation reaction (UOR) catalysts places constraints on the development of this technique. Here we report a porous rod-like NiMoO4 with high oxidation states of the metal elements enabling highly efficient UOR electrocatalysis, which can be readily produced through annealing solid NiMoO4·xH2O as a starting precursor in Ar. This precursor gives the derived Ni/NiO/MoOx nanocomposite when switching the shielding gas from Ar to H2/Ar, exhibiting platinum-like activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline electrolytes. Assembling an electrolytic cell using our developed UOR and HER catalysts as the anode and cathode can provide a current density of 10 milliamperes per square centimeter at a cell voltage of mere 1.38 volts, as well as remarkable operational stability, representing the best yet reported noble-metal-free urea electrolyser. Our results demonstrate the potential of nickel–molybdenum-based materials as efficient electrode catalysts for urea electrolysers that promises cost-effective and energy-saving H2 production.Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (21431006, 21761132008, 51702312, 21521001)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDJ-SSW-SLH036, 2015HSC-UE007)
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