Durable Natural Urine Electrolysis Enabled by Lewis Acid‐Tailored Interfacial Microenvironment
Electrochemical urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is a promising alternative to sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for hydrogen production. However, its reliance on costly pure urea limits practical application. To address this issue, urine oxidation reaction (U<sub>r</sub>OR) has been proposed, which utilizes natural urine as a cost-free feedstock. Nevertheless, due to the complex ionic matrix of urine, U<sub>r</sub>OR suffers from catalyst acidification and chloride-induced corrosion, limiting long-term stability. Here, an interfacial microenvironment regulation strategy by modifying common Ni<sub>2</sub>P catalyst with various hard Lewis acids (LA) is reported. The optimal V<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5-δ</sub>-Ni<sub>2</sub>P hybrid exhibits remarkable U<sub>r</sub>OR activity (1.62 V at 3 A cm<sup>-2</sup>) and long-term durability (1000 h). Mechanistic analysis reveals that LA component selectively enriches interfacial OH<sup>-</sup> ions, effectively suppressing the adsorption of impurities, especially Cl<sup>-</sup> ions, and the generation of N-chlorourea byproduct. Notably, a near-kilowatt-scale natural urine electrolysis is first verified in a flow electrolyser (18 cells, area of 1386 cm<sup>2</sup>), achieving a high H<sub>2</sub> production rate of 115.84 L h<sup>-1</sup> with a urine purification rate of 97.41%, while recovering nitrogen-rich compound fertilizers (NH<sub>4</sub>Cl/KCl). Furthermore, the electrolyzer exhibits broad applicability across wastewater with various urea concentrations (5-330 mM) and Cl<sup>-</sup> ions concentrations (0.5-500 mM), including challenging 100 L wheatfield effluents.
Authors
- Shuai Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5350-4048)
- Zekang Wang
- Yao Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2411-8041)
- Jun Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4565-3000)
- Shi‐Zhang Qiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4568-8422)
- Xin Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0739-8440)
- Pengtang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0824-994X)
- Ping Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0274-5674)
Institutions
- Anhui University (CN)
- The University of Adelaide (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-12-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202521945
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Advanced oxidation water treatment
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.82