Nanocomposite Electrocatalysts for Efficient Urea Electrolysis in Industrial and Medical Waste Treatment

Abstract In this study, NiFe-LDH catalysts were fabricated on stainless steel mesh (SSM) via electrochemical deposition at varying deposition times. Electrochemical evaluations revealed that among the prepared samples, the NiFe-LDH electrode deposited for 1000 seconds exhibited the highest performance and stability for the urea oxidation reaction (UOR) and the NiCo-LDH electrode exhibited the highest performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in 1.0 M KOH with 0.5 M urea, as confirmed by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The excellent catalytic activity of the NiFe-LDH/SSM/1000s electrode underscores its potential as an efficient non-noble metal catalyst. In addition to electro-chemical testing, structural and surface characterizations were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), while density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to gain insight into the electronic structure and catalytic activity of the NiFe-LDH system.