Frontiers in Chemistry (Oct 2023)

Large scale uniform Ni-P plated carbon fiber for boosting urea electro-oxidation and electro-detection

  • Yan-Ru Fan,
  • Jin-Qi Li,
  • Yu-Xi Yang,
  • Zhi-Hao Zhang,
  • Jie Zhang,
  • Jing-He Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2023.1298655
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Seeking an excellent electrocatalyst is the trickiest issue for the application of urea electro-oxidation and electro-detection. Phosphorus-doped nickel plating on carbon fibers (Ni-P/CF) is synthesized by simple electroless plating. SEM results exhibit that the Ni-P densely and uniformly grows onto the surface of carbon fibers (CF), forming carbon fibers-like nanoarchitectures. Benefiting from the carbon fibers-like nano architectures with abundant exposed active sites on the surface of CF, electron transfer can be synchronously facilitated, and Ni-P/CF displays superior urea electrooxidation (UOR) performance with potentials of 1.40 V to reach 100 mA cm−2. Impressively, it can maintain at 20 mA cm−2 for 48 h without evident activity attenuation, demonstrating robust durability. Cycle stability shows that the voltage has only increased by 10 mV at 300 mA cm−2 from the 10th to 20000th cycles. Most importantly, Ni-P/CF at a length of 100 cm with good reproducibility was successfully synthesized, denoting great potential for large-scale industrial production. Therefore, this work not only affords cost-effective tactics for urea-rich wastewater degradation but also can achieve practical medical applications.

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