The development of multifunctional electrocatalysts with high performance for electrocatalyzing urea oxidation-assisted water splitting is of great significance for energy-saving hydrogen production. In this work, we demonstrate a novel heteroatom engineering strategy for development of B-doped Co as a multifunctional electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and urea oxidation reaction (UOR). Density functional theory (DFT) results suggest that a B dopant can efficiently adjust the electron reconstruction of the exposure of Co sites nearby and facilitate electron transfer, resulting in an optimal d-band center along with a lower Gibbs free energy barrier. Ultimately, the obtained B–Co exhibits pH-universal HER properties in various electrolytes. A highly efficient HER performance with overpotentials as low as 27, 163, and 430 mV to −10, −100, and −500 mA cm^–2 in 1.0 M KOH, respectively, is observed for the B–Co electrode. More importantly, the UOR-assisted electrolyzer only requires a voltage input of 1.55 V to produce the current densities of 50 mA cm^–2, resulting in a 200 mV saving-energy potential compared to water electrolysis, demonstrating its high efficiency of hydrogen production in industrial applications.

中文翻译：

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地球丰富的钴电催化剂中的杂原子工程，用于节能析氢与尿素氧化耦合


开发高性能的多功能电催化剂，用于电催化尿素氧化辅助分解水，对节能制氢具有重要意义。在这项工作中，我们展示了一种新的杂原子工程策略，用于开发 B 掺杂 Co 作为析氢反应 （HER）、析氧反应 （OER） 和尿素氧化反应 （UOR） 的多功能电催化剂。密度泛函理论 （DFT） 结果表明，B 掺杂剂可以有效地调整附近 Co 位点暴露的电子重构并促进电子转移，从而产生最佳的 d 波段中心和较低的吉布斯自由能势垒。最终，获得的 B-Co 在各种电解质中表现出 pH 通用的 HER 特性。在 1.0 M KOH 中观察到过电位分别低至 27、163 和 430 mV 至 −10、−100 和 −500 mA cm^–2 的高效 HER 性能，对于 B-Co 电极。更重要的是，UOR 辅助电解槽只需要 1.55 V 的电压输入即可产生 50 mA cm^–2 的电流密度，与水电解相比，可节省 200 mV 的能源，证明了其在工业应用中的高产氢效率。