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Nano Research 2022, 15(3): 1916-1925 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3810-4
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 02 September 2021

Nested hollow architectures of nitrogen-doped carbon-decorated Fe, Co, Ni-based phosphides for boosting water and urea electrolysis

Show Author's Information Jie Zhang1,§,  Shoushuang Huang1,§( ),  Ping Ning1,  Peijun Xin1,  Zhiwen Chen1( ),  Qing Wang1,  Kajsa Uvdal2,  Zhangjun Hu1,2( )
Shanghai Applied Radiation Institute, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Division of Molecular Surface Physics & Nanoscience, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping 58183, Sweden

§ Jie Zhang and Shoushuang Huang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
oxygen evolution reaction, tri-metal phosphides, nested hollow nano-architecture, urea oxidation reaction
Topics:
Oxygen evolution reaction
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Zhang J, Huang S, Ning P, et al. Nested hollow architectures of nitrogen-doped carbon-decorated Fe, Co, Ni-based phosphides for boosting water and urea electrolysis. Nano Research, 2022, 15(3): 1916-1925. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3810-4
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Abstract Full text About this article

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.


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About this article

Nested hollow architectures of nitrogen-doped carbon-decorated Fe, Co, Ni-based phosphides for boosting water and urea electrolysis

Show Author's information Jie Zhang1,§, Shoushuang Huang1,§( ), Ping Ning1, Peijun Xin1, Zhiwen Chen1( ), Qing Wang1, Kajsa Uvdal2, Zhangjun Hu1,2( )
Shanghai Applied Radiation Institute, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Division of Molecular Surface Physics & Nanoscience, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping 58183, Sweden

§ Jie Zhang and Shoushuang Huang contributed equally to this work.

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.

Keywords: oxygen evolution reaction, tri-metal phosphides, nested hollow nano-architecture, urea oxidation reaction

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Publication history

Received: 07 June 2021
Revised: 02 August 2021
Accepted: 11 August 2021
Published: 02 September 2021
Issue date: March 2022

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© The Author(s) 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21601120), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Nos. 17ZR1410500 and 19ZR1418100), Science and Technology Program of Shanghai (No. 21010500300), STINT Joint China-Sweden Mobility Project (No. CH2017-7243), and Swedish Government strategic faculty grant in material science (SFO, MATLIU) in Advanced Functional Materials (AFM) (VR Dnr. 5.1-2015-5959). We also appreciate the High-Performance Computing Center of Shanghai University, and Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Computing System (No. 19DZ2252600) for providing the computing resources and technical support.

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Copyright: 2021 by the author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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