Nanostructured Nickel-Cobalt Oxide and Sulfide for Green Energy Production Using Waste Water

With the advancement in technology, demand for green energy production is increasing year by year. To meet the increasing demand for green energy, there has been continuous research in a bid to find better materials and efficient ways to generate energy. Transition metals such as Fe, Mo, Ni, etc. based materials have shown great potential to be used as electrocatalysts for water splitting, and the urea oxidation reaction (UOR). In this work, nanostructured nickel-cobalt oxide and nickel-cobalt sulfide were synthesized using a facile hydrothermal method for their applications in water splitting and UOR. It was observed that the properties of nickel-cobalt oxide improved significantly after converting it to nickel-cobalt sulfide. Nickel-cobalt sulfide showed an overpotential of 282 mV while nickel-cobalt oxide displayed an overpotential of 379 mV to generate a current of 10 mA/cm 2 , towards oxygen evolution. After introduction of 0.33 M urea, the potential for oxidation of urea for both nickel-cobalt oxide and nickel-cobalt sulfide is decreased to 1.34 V.