• • MoN/Ni heterostructure achieves 100 mA cm−2 at 1.39 V vs. RHE in 1 M KOH + 0.33 M urea, outperforming conventional Ni-based catalysts that require higher potentials due to NSOR.
• • XPS and XAS confirm electron transfer from Ni to Mo, creating electron-rich Mo and electron-deficient Ni sites, which is critical for suppressing NSOR and enhancing UOR kinetics.
• • In-situ Raman and EIS demonstrate that electron-deficient Ni sites avoid NSOR, reducing energy waste and preventing catalyst poisoning by CO2, thus improving long-term stability.
• • DFT calculations show that electron-rich Mo sites lower the adsorption energy of urea, promoting its activation and subsequent conversion, which is the rate-determining step in UOR.