Abstract
Tailoring the nanostructure/morphology and chemical composition is important to regulate the electronic configuration of electrocatalysts and thus enhance their performance for water and urea electrolysis. Herein, the nitrogen-doped carbon-decorated tricomponent metal phosphides of FeP4 nanotube@Ni-Co-P nanocage (NC-FNCP) with unique nested hollow architectures are fabricated by a self-sacrifice template strategy. Benefiting from the multi-component synergy, the modification of nitrogen-doped carbon, and the modulation of nested porous hollow morphology, NC-FNCP facilitates rapid electron/mass transport in water and urea electrolysis. NC-FNCP-based anode shows low potentials of 248 mV and 1.37 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode) to attain 10 mA/cm2 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR), respectively. In addition, the overall urea electrolysis drives 10 mA/cm2 at a comparatively low voltage of 1.52 V (vs. RHE) that is 110 mV lower than that of overall water electrolysis, as well as exhibits excellent stability over 20 h. This work strategizes a multi-shell-structured electrocatalyst with multi-compositions and explores its applications in a sustainable combination of hydrogen production and sewage remediation.
Highlights
Hydrogen energy has been consumingly regarded as one of the foremost alternatives for unsustainable fossil fuels on account of the ever-increasing energy demand and the rising concerns about environmental issues [1,2,3]
These demonstrated that the corporation of Fe and Co that belong to the same group as Ni into Ni-based phosphides could optimize the electronic structure of the material, facilitate the formation of highenergy intermediates (OOH*/CO*/NH2*) and accelerate the combination of the adsorbed hydrogen intermediates (H*) into H2 [28,29,30,31]
Turnover frequency (TOF) = J × A/ (z × F × n) where J is the current density at a specific potential (A/cm2), A is the surface area of the Ni foam (1 cm2), z is the number of electrons transferred in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) (z = 4 in the OER, and z = 6 in the UOR), F is the Faraday constant (96,485 C/mol), and n is the total number of moles of the active metal centers of the catalysts
Summary
Hydrogen energy has been consumingly regarded as one of the foremost alternatives for unsustainable fossil fuels on account of the ever-increasing energy demand and the rising concerns about environmental issues [1,2,3]. Sha et al prepared thorny leaf-like NiCoP via the in situ vertically grown on a carbon cloth (NiCoP/CC), which confirmed that the incorporation of Co into nickel-based phosphates can tune the electronic structure around Ni and P elements, enhance the charge transfer rate, and reduce the kinetic energy barriers in the UOR process [24] These demonstrated that the corporation of Fe and Co that belong to the same group as Ni into Ni-based phosphides could optimize the electronic structure of the material, facilitate the formation of highenergy intermediates (OOH*/CO*/NH2*) and accelerate the combination of the adsorbed hydrogen intermediates (H*) into H2 [28,29,30,31]. NC-FNCP shows great overall water and urea splitting performance and long-term stability
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