Two dimensional Cu based nanocomposite materials for direct urea fuel cell

In this work, Cu₂O nanoparticles were successfully prepared onto the surface of two-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) by using a simple solution chemistry approach. An environment-friendly reducing agent, glucose, was used for the synthesis of Cu₂O NPs onto the surface of g-C₃N₄ without using any surfactant or additives. The surface composition, crystalline structure, morphology, as well as other properties have been investigated using XPS, XRD, SEM, FTIR, FESEM, EDS, etc. The electrochemical measurements of the prepared materials demonstrated that Cu₂O exhibited a weak oxidation activity towards urea, while g-C₃N₄ has no activity towards urea oxidation. The Cu₂O supported on the surface of g-C₃N₄ (Cu₂O-g-C₃N₄) demonstrated a significant activity towards urea oxidation that reached two times that of the unsupported one. The significant increase in the performance was related to the synergetic effect between the Cu₂O and g-C₃N₄ support. The prepared composite materials demonstrated high stability towards urea oxidation as confirmed from the stable current discharge for around 3 h without any noticeable degradation performance.