Synergistically Enhanced Bifunctional Electrocatalysis on W-Se Co-Modified Lightweight Porous Ni/Cu Foil for Methanol and Urea Oxidation

The development of lightweight, low-cost, and high-performance non-precious metal electrocatalytic electrodes is critical to advancing the practical implementation of methanol and urea oxidation reactions (MOR and UOR) in next-generation energy conversion systems. Herein, we reported a facile synthesis of a W-Se co-modified porous Ni/Cu paper electrode (W-NiSe/Cup) via synchronous pulse electrodeposition onto filter paper-derived porous Cu foil. The hierarchical porosity and high specific surface area originated from the paper template, while synergistic electronic modulation among Ni, W, and Se enhanced intrinsic catalytic activity. At 0.8 V, the W-NiSe/Cup electrode delivered current densities of 298 mA·cm−2 (MOR) and 305 mA·cm−2 (UOR) with a lower-mass loading, representing 1.29-fold and 1.34-fold enhancements over the Ni/Cup electrode. Furthermore, the electrode exhibited exceptional durability: under chronopotentiometry operation at 100 mA·cm−2 in a 6-fold-concentrated electrolyte (6 M KOH + 3.0 M CH3OH + 1.98 M CO(NH2)2), the operating potentials retained 95.74% (MOR) and 118.05% (UOR) of their initial values after 9 h. This study offers a novel strategy for designing lightweight non-precious metal catalytic electrodes for portable energy devices and also verifies the broad potential of biomass templates in constructing advanced energy electrocatalytic materials.