Ni-Co bimetal decorated carbon nanotube aerogel as an efficient anode catalyst in urea fuel cells

Ni-based catalysts have been considered as an efficient anode material for urea fuel cells due to the low cost and high activity in alkaline media. Herein, we demonstrate that Ni-Co bimetallic nanoparticles decorated carbon nanotube aerogels as catalysts for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) can be synthesized by a polyol reduction and sol-gel method. The morphology, structure, and composition of the Ni-Co/MWCNT aerogels were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-Ray diffraction. The electro-catalytic activity of the Ni-Co/MWCNT aerogels towards UOR was investigated using cyclic voltammetry. It was found that the Co-doping at 25% (Co/Ni) significantly increased the oxidation peak current and reduced the overpotential of the UOR. Furthermore, the MWCNT aerogel support also remarkably enhanced electro-catalytic activity by providing a high surface area and fast mass transport for the UOR owing to the porous 3D network structures with uniform distribution of Ni-Co nanoparticles. Urea/O(2) fuel cell with Ni-Co/MWCNT aerogel as anode material exhibited an excellent performance with maximum power density of 17.5 mWcm(−2) with an open circuit voltage of 0.9 V. Thus, this work showed that the highly porous three-dimensional Ni-Co/MWCNT aerogel catalysts can be used for urea oxidation and as an efficient anode material for urea fuel cells.