Synthesis of hierarchical nickel sulfide nanotubes for highly efficient electrocatalytic urea oxidation

It is a challenge to prepare high-efficiency and inexpensive electrocatalysts toward urea oxidation reaction (UOR). Herein, we report the fabrication of NiS nanotubes with hierarchical sheet-like surface morphology via a novel template-directed hydrothermal reaction as efficient UOR electrocatalyst. The unique hollow structure of NiS nanotubes provides the exposure of more active sites and excellent electron/mass transport properties, ensuring a superior UOR performance. The NiS nanotubes catalyst shows a very low potential at around 1.39 V vs. RHE at 100 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH/0.33 M urea solution. And the UOR current density of the catalyst at 1.4 V vs. RHE reaches 135 mA cm−2, representing a superior UOR performance. The NiS nanotubes catalyst also possesses an excellent operational stability. Furthermore, a two-electrode urea-assisted overall water splitting (OWS) device assembled with NiS nanotubes as anode and Pt/C as cathode delivers a working voltage of 1.445 V to attain 10 mA cm−2, which is 188 mV less than that for the urea-free OWS electrolyzer, demonstrating its possibility to be applicable for energy efficient hydrogen production. This study provides a rationale to develop high-efficiency non-precious metal-based UOR catalysts for the efficient assistance of hydrogen fuel generation.