Tungsten-cobalt co-doped nickel selenide in situ anchored on carbon cloth for enhanced electrocatalytic urea oxidation

The urea oxidation reaction (UOR), as an alternative to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), is an efficient, energy-saving hydrogen production technology. However, improving hydrogen production efficiency requires developing high-performance catalysts to enhance UOR kinetics. Therefore, by adopting the doping strategy, the composite (W, Co-NiSe 2 /CC) of W and Co co-doped NiSe 2 anchored on carbon cloth (CC) has been prepared through a hydrothermal-coupled pyrolysis method. At 1.724 V (vs RHE), the UOR current density on the W, Co-NiSe 2 /CC composite is 363.24 mA cm −2 , and the potential required for UOR is only 1.298 V (vs RHE) at 10 mA cm −2 (pH = 13.8). Meanwhile, after 200 h of chronoamperometry (CA) testing, the current density retention rate was 80.34%. The excellent performance of W, Co-NiSe 2 /CC is attributed to dual W and Co doping, which promotes the generation of active species Ni 3+ , lowers the UOR energy barrier, and facilitates CO(NH 2 ) 2 adsorption and CO 2 and N 2 desorption.