Carbon Anchored Epitaxially Grown Nickel Cobalt‐Based Carbonate Hydroxide for Urea Electrooxidation Reaction with a High Activity and Durability

Abstract Urea has shown a potential importance as a possible alternative hydrogen‐storage source for low‐temperature fuel cells. Besides, the electrooxidation of urea provides an efficient solution for the disposal of wastewater in the agricultural industry, but the state‐of‐the art urea electrocatalysis suffers from the associated sluggish kinetics. In this study, we fabricated unique vertically aligned nanorod arrays‐like carbon anchored nickel‐cobalt carbonate hydroxides (C−NiCo CHs) without agglomeration through a mass scale one‐step hydrothermal approach for electrocatalytic oxidation of urea in an alkaline environment. The composite affords a high specific surface area of 162.55 m 2 g −1 with distinctive porous features, suggesting a large surface exposure and sufficient electrolyte accessibility during chemical reactions. The catalyst exhibits an outstanding electrocatalytic activity towards urea electrooxidation with a high current density and an outstanding durability benefiting from the tuned electric conductivity. Impressively, the hybrid shows a greatly improved catalytic performance at higher KOH moieties with a much‐enhanced peak current and a negatively shifted onset voltage, which can be interpreted by the intensive Ni activation processes caused by the densely formed OH − ions. These findings signify that the well‐developed nanoarchitecture of C−NiCo CHs hybrid could pave the way to rationally fabricate highly active electrocatalysts for urea electrocatalysis.