Towards Affordable Clean Energy: Exploring New Catalysts for Urea-based Fuel Cells

Meeting society’s ever-increasing energy demands while also striving for sustainability goals has become a worldwide challenge, and scientists are exploring a variety of technologies to produce clean, renewable energy that can replace fossil fuels.

Besides wind and solar power, electrochemical approaches using fuel cells are attractive because they represent a compact, silent, and environmentally friendly alternative to generate electricity.

Direct urea fuel cells (DUFCs) are a particular type of fuel cell which generates electricity by breaking down urea, a nitrogen-rich molecule widely applied in fertilisers and also largely present in wastewater. However, fuel cells require catalysts to function; these are carefully selected materials which facilitate the necessary chemical reactions. In the case of DUFCs, unfortunately, the best performing catalysts known are made using precious metals, like platinum.

To tackle this limitation and find a more accessible alternative, an international research team led by Professor Kyu-Jung Chae of Korea Maritime and Ocean University investigated a promising family of catalysts: nickel chalcogenides. The researchers used three-dimensional nickel (Ni) foam as a lightweight ‘substrate’ and then combined the outermost layer of the nickel with different chalcogen elements (oxygen, sulphur, selenium, and tellurium), producing a nanosheet of nickel chalcogenide following the complex contours of the Ni foam. They also prepared nickel phosphide (Ni–P) and nickel layered double hydroxide (Ni–LDH) in a similar fashion.

After synthesising and characterising the various catalysts, the team experimentally determined which one offered the best electrochemical performance, which turned out to be the one containing Ni–Se. Then, they thoroughly tested it in a real DUFC and determined what exactly gives Ni–Se an edge versus the rest, as Professor Chae explained: ” We found that selenium has a strong synergistic effect with Ni, and that the unique nanoscale morphology of the catalyst we prepared provides a high surface area to oxidise urea and enough pores to enhance mass transfer. ”

Source: Global Energy World