Guidelines for reliable urea detection in electrocatalysis

Electrochemical urea synthesis offers a promising green alternative to fossil fuel-based approaches to support the increasing global demand for nitrogen fertilizers. Unfortunately, the conventional urea detection methods produce inconsistent and unreliable results, hindering progress in this field. Both false positives and negatives can be observed depending on environmental factors and interfering chemicals. In this regard, we propose new rigorous 13C NMR and LC-MS protocols for accurate urea detection to analyze catalyst activity in an accessible and reproducible manner.