The urea oxidation reaction (UOR), a competitive substitute
for
the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), holds superior potential to meet
the upsurge of renewable energy conversion due to low theoretical
potential while the sluggish UOR kinetics impede its practical application.
In this report, for the first time, we demonstrate that the UOR activity
of Ni5P4 is improved via V incorporation. The
novel amorphous V-doped Ni5P4 (V10%-Ni5P4) microflower structure with optimized
electronic structure was prepared by a solvothermal–phosphorization
process. With V atoms involved, the V10%-Ni5P4 microflowers are assembled by much thinner, denser
nanosheet units compared with the Ni5P4 counterpart,
which endows it with more active sites, enhanced mass transfer, conductivity,
and better wettability. The V10%-Ni5P4 microflowers exhibit outstanding UOR activity of 282 mA cm–2 at 1.6 V vs RHE with a low Tafel slope (36.1 mV
dec–1). Furthermore, the urea-assisted electrolytic
cell only needs 1.44 V to provide 50 mA cm–2 and
the urea-assisted rechargeable Zn-Air battery (uZAB) is illustrated
to have a higher open-circuit voltage of 1.43 V and possesses a lower
potential gap than that Pt/Ir-based uZABs. This report sheds light
on the role of vanadium in crystallization and structure optimization
and lays the foundation for developing new UOR electrocatalysts.
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