Dual-doped medium-entropy phosphides for complete urea electrolysis

Developing dual-functional electrocatalysts for urea-water decomposition still faces significant challenges. In this study, the vanadium (V) and cerium (Ce) co-doped FeCoNi medium-entropy phosphide (VCe-FeCoNiP/NF) were effectively fabricated on nickel foam (NF) via “two-step method,” which involved hydrothermal treatment followed by phosphorization. Experimental results indicate that, benefiting from dual-ion doping and medium-entropy configuration, VCe-FeCoNiP/NF demonstrates unique electronic effects among the multimetallic elements, thereby exhibited remarkable catalytic activity for both urea oxidation reaction (UOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Under urea-water conditions (1 M KOH with 0.33 M urea), the VCe-FeCoNi/NF catalyst merely required 1.338 V (vs RHE) and an overpotential of 173 mV to attain a current density of 100 mA·cm −2 for UOR and HER, respectively. Moreover, it could stably operate at a current density of 20 mA·cm −2 for 225 h in overall urea-water decomposition. This work provides new insights for designing high-performance urea-water electrolysis catalysts.