A three-dimensional nanostructure of NiFe(OH)X nanoparticles/nickel foam as an efficient electrocatalyst for urea oxidation

Abstract

Developing high-performance electrocatalysts for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) can not only solve the problem of environmental pollution, but also solve the problem of the energy crisis by producing hydrogen for electrodes. The preparation of porous three-dimensional nanostructures as efficient electrocatalysts has become important work. Here, we developed a novel three-dimensional (3D) nanostructure of NiFe(OH)_X nanoparticles/nickel foam with a high active area by a simple electroplating method and a subsequent treatment with ferric ion solution. This structure shows much greater UOR activity than the control sample (Ni/Ni foam) with the potential of 1.395 V (vs. RHE) (with an overpotential of 1.025 V) for driving the current density of 100 mA cm⁻² in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte with 0.33 M urea. This work not only provides rapid and large-scale preparation of a three-dimensional nanostructure, but also gives a new way to design and obtain high-performance electrocatalysts.