Heterostructured NiSe2/MoSe2 electronic modulation for efficient electrocatalysis in urea assisted water splitting reaction

Efficient heterogeneous catalysts play a very important role in the value-updated green hydrogen production from urea-containing wastewater. Herein, NiSe2/MoSe2 heterostructured catalyst with optimized interfacial electron redistribution and urea adsorption energies via a strong built-in electric field was demonstrated effective for the urea-assisted water splitting reactions. Efficient cata-lytic performance was found on NiSe2/MoSe2 hybrid microsphere owing to the combined merits such as the unique structure features, the strong synergetic coupling effects, the increased active sites, and the high amount of intrinsic Ni3+ species. Excellent urea oxidation activity was found to drive 10 mA cm-2 at the potential of 1.33 V when loaded on the glassy carbon electrode, and a cell voltage of 1.47 V was required in the NiSe2/MoSe2||Pt/C urea-water electrolyzer to drive 10 mA cm-2, about 220 mV less than that of water electrolysis, indicating a less energy consumption technique during the electrolysis. The spectroscopic and theoretical analysis revealed the effective synergy of the Ni-Se bond and Mo-Se bond that would be promising for efficient catalyst system construction. (c) 2023, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.