Amorphous NiMoP with synergistic Ni–Mo electronic interaction for efficient urea-assisted hydrogen production

The development of low-cost, high-efficiency electrocatalysts for energy-saving hydrogen production via urea-assisted water splitting remains a significant challenge. Herein, an amorphous NiMoP electrocatalyst is successfully synthesized on nickel foam (NF) via a one-step electrodeposition method at room temperature. The NiMoP/NF electrode exhibits a unique three-dimensional flower-like nanoflake architecture, providing abundant active sites and facilitating mass transfer. Owing to the synergistic electronic interaction between Ni and Mo, as well as the amorphous structure, NiMoP/NF demonstrates excellent catalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) in alkaline media. Specifically, NiMoP/NF requires overpotentials of only 224 and 327 mV to achieve 50 mA cm −2 for HER and OER, respectively, and a low potential of 1.358 V for UOR at the same current density. Moreover, a two-electrode urea electrolysis cell using NiMoP/NF as both anode and cathode delivers 50 mA cm −2 at a cell voltage of only 1.568 V, which is 252 mV lower than that of conventional water splitting, and exhibits excellent long-term stability over 200 h, with negligible Ni loss and selective Mo/P leaching during the surface reconstruction process. This work provides a facile and scalable strategy for constructing amorphous multinary phosphides toward efficient urea-assisted hydrogen production.