Service Email Alerting click here. top right corner of the article or Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article-sign up in the box at the http://genome.cshlp.org/subscriptions
The electrocatalytic urea oxidation reaction (UOR) provides more economic electrons than water oxidation for various renewable energy‐related systems owing to its lower thermodynamic barriers. However, it is limited by sluggish reaction kinetics, especially by CO2 desorption steps, masking its energetic advantage compared with water oxidation. Now, a lattice‐oxygen‐involved UOR mechanism on Ni4+ active sites is reported that has significantly faster reaction kinetics than the conventional UOR mechanisms. Combined DFT, 18O isotope‐labeling mass spectrometry, and in situ IR spectroscopy show that lattice oxygen is directly involved in transforming *CO to CO2 and accelerating the UOR rate. The resultant Ni4+ catalyst on a glassy carbon electrode exhibits a high current density (264 mA cm−2 at 1.6 V versus RHE), outperforming the state‐of‐the‐art catalysts, and the turnover frequency of Ni4+ active sites towards UOR is 5 times higher than that of Ni3+ active sites.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.