Indirect urea electrooxidation by nickel(III) in alkaline medium: From kinetic and mechanism to reactor modeling

This study consists in the determination of two kinetic laws of urea oxidation (UO) and electrooxidation (UEO) in alkaline media on nickel(III). Two kinds of active sites were examined, the first one derived from a Ni(OH)2 powder and the second from a massive nickel electrode. Partial orders of nickel(III) (two for UO and five UEO) enable to conclude about (i) the urea adsorption on two nickel(III) sites and (ii) that a multistep oxidation of urea occurs involving five nickel(III) site electroregenerations. A multipathway mechanism is also proposed to explain UEO facilitated by the nickel(III)/nickel(II) mediation system, and to predict the by‐products' formation previously identified (NO2−,NH3,OCN−,CO32−). At last, a model combining the UEO kinetic law previously established, with diffusive and convective transport phenomena was developed. A consistent correlation (maximum deviation of 6%) between laboratory electrolysis results with the model' predictions was obtained under different operating conditions, enabling the validation of this model.