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Journal of Materials Science

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30-10-2023 | Chemical routes to materials

Facile fabrication of amorphous NiFeP nanosheets to promote urea oxidation reaction for energy-saving hydrogen production

Authors: Junhui Cao, Guanglong Wang, Shusen Hou, Weixin Yu, Zhijun Yang, Yihui Wu

Published in: Journal of Materials Science | Issue 41/2023

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Abstract

Although Urea oxidation reaction (UOR) with favorable thermodynamic potential has been well-acknowledged as a feasible alternative to slow oxygen evolution reaction for hydrogen production through water splitting, but the shortage of low-cost and high efficiency electrocatalysts restricts its practical development. In this research, a free-standing nickel–iron-phosphide (NiFeP) nanosheets electrocatalysts on nickel foam is synthesized by electrodeposition method. The presence of phosphide (P) causes nickel–iron (NiFe) to evolve from crystalline to amorphous structures. The NiFeP electrocatalysts with nanosheets structure exhibit reliable electrocatalytic activities toward UOR with small potential of 1.397 V at 10 mA cm⁻², low Tafel slope of 60.1 mV dec⁻¹ and outstanding catalytic stability in 1.0 M KOH with 0.33 M urea solution. More impressively, the electrochemical activation energy (E_a) of UOR for the NiFeP electrocatalyst (35.6 kJ mol⁻¹) is much lower than that of NiFe electrocatalyst (52.1 kJ mol⁻¹). The phosphorus doping triggers the electronic structure of Ni and Fe site reconstruction, which is conducive to accelerating charge and mass transport, and then contributes to the enhanced electrocatalytic performance. Furthermore, the formation of amorphous structure and nanosheets structure by the incorporation of phosphorus contributes to the improved intrinsic activity of NiFeP for UOR.

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Title: Facile fabrication of amorphous NiFeP nanosheets to promote urea oxidation reaction for energy-saving hydrogen production
Authors: Junhui Cao
Guanglong Wang
Shusen Hou
Weixin Yu
Zhijun Yang
Yihui Wu
Publication date: 30-10-2023
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Materials Science / Issue 41/2023
Print ISSN: 0022-2461
Electronic ISSN: 1573-4803
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09048-4

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