Nanostructured Cobalt-Based Electrocatalysts for Urea Oxidation: Mechanistic Insights, Nanoengineering Strategies, and Application Perspectives.

Authors

Mansor Hussain, Khadija Tabassum, Yuan Fu, Xinyi Ma, Abdur Rehman Nasrullah, Jia Liu

Published in

ChemPlusChem. Volume 91. Issue 8. Pages e70212.

Abstract

Electrochemical urea oxidation (UOR) enables energy-efficient hydrogen production coupled with wastewater remediation, representing a promising sustainable technology. Nanostructured cobalt-based catalysts have emerged as leading UOR candidates due to their tunable electronic structures, high intrinsic activity, and excellent stability. This review critically analyzes cobalt's mechanistic role in nickel oxyhydroxides, focusing on how Co doping modulates electronic structures, optimizes reaction pathways, and breaks the scaling relations limiting pure Ni catalysts. We summarize diverse nanoengineering strategies that synergistically enhance active site exposure, charge transfer kinetics and anti-deactivation performance. Key challenges (catalyst poisoning, sluggish multielectron kinetics, byproduct formation) and emerging solutions are discussed. Finally, we outline prospects for integrating advanced Co-based UOR catalysts into large-scale electrolysis systems to accelerate commercialization.

PMID:
42572459
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Aug 2026.

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