J. Dabboussi, R.-A. Eichel, H. Kungl, R. Abdallah, G. Loget*
Curr. Opin. Electrochem., 2024, 45, 101468.
Despite the longstanding interest in urea oxidation reaction (UOR), the identification of reaction products under conventional conditions was only reported recently. It turns out that the initially thought “sustainable pathway”, leading to harmless products, represents just a small fraction of the overall reaction mechanism. This is detrimental as the use of urea-rich aqueous feeds for H2 production, along with their remediation through UOR, constitutes perhaps the most important added value of this process for power-to-X and clinical applications. Nonetheless, promising strategies favoring the formation of environmentally friendly products over harmful overoxidized ones already exist. This is expected to lead to a “rebirth” of this research field and open the quest for ultimate selectivity to ensure the complete sustainability of UOR. Therefore, the systematic analysis of reaction products, the elucidation of mechanisms for improving N2 faradaic efficiency, and the design of selective catalysts should be the next focus of research in the field of UOR.
