Urine electrooxidation for energy-saving hydrogen generation

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dc.contributor.authorWang, P.
dc.contributor.authorGao, X.
dc.contributor.authorZheng, M.
dc.contributor.authorJaroniec, M.
dc.contributor.authorZheng, Y.
dc.contributor.authorQiao, S.
dc.date.issued2025
dc.descriptionPublished online: 11 Mar 2025
dc.description.abstractUrea electrooxidation offers a cost-effective alternative to water oxidation for energy-saving hydrogen production. However, its practical application is limited by expensive urea reactants and sluggish reaction kinetics. Here, we present an efficient urine electrolysis system for hydrogen production, using cost-free urine as feedstock. Our system leverages a discovered Cl-mediated urea oxidation mechanism on Pt catalysts, where adsorbed Cl directly couple with urea to form N-chlorourea intermediates, which are then converted into N2 via intermolecular N-N coupling. This rapid mediated-oxidation process notably improves the activity and stability of urine electrolysis while avoiding Cl-induced corrosion, enabling over 200 hours of operation at reduced voltages. Accordingly, a notable reduction in the electricity consumption is achieved during urine electrolysis (4.05 kWh Nm⁻³) at 300 mA cm⁻² in practical electrolyser for hydrogen production, outperforming the traditional urea (5.62 kWh Nm⁻³) and water (4.70-5.00 kWh Nm⁻³) electrolysis.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityPengtang Wang, Xintong Gao, Min Zheng, Mietek Jaroniec, Yao Zheng and Shi, Zhang Qiao
dc.identifier.citationNature Communications, 2025; 16(1):2424-1-2424-11
dc.identifier.doi10.1038/s41467-025-57798-3
dc.identifier.issn2041-1723
dc.identifier.issn2041-1723
dc.identifier.orcidWang, P. [0009-0008-0824-994X]
dc.identifier.orcidGao, X. [0000-0002-7691-6715]
dc.identifier.orcidZheng, M. [0000-0002-2404-5006]
dc.identifier.orcidZheng, Y. [0000-0002-2411-8041]
dc.identifier.orcidQiao, S. [0000-0002-1220-1761] [0000-0002-4568-8422]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2440/144790
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSpringer Nature
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FL170100154
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP220102596
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP210301397
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE230101637
dc.rights© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived fromthis article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57798-3
dc.titleUrine electrooxidation for energy-saving hydrogen generation
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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