Issues of uniform incorporation of catalytic functional species with controllable sizes, shapes, compositions, and functions into porous carbon scaffolds remain significant challenges toward enriching and boosting performance. Here, we develop a straightforward approach that introduces dicyandiamide as a nitrogen source to chelate with metal species and combines with the surfactant-templating selfassembly method for the fabrication of highly dispersed catalysts anchored in nitrogen-containing ordered mesoporous carbon (NOMC). As a result, these functional catalyst (such as PdCu nanocrystals)-embedded NOMC composites manifest a synergistic catalytic capability for the electroreduction of nitrate in neutral electrolyte, with more than 90% nitrate removed under an ultra-low concentration of 100 ppm and a high nitrogen selectivity of 60% after 10 repeated tests.

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Nanodenitrification is achieved by bimetallic Pd–Cu nanoparticles encapsulated in porous N-doped carbon as electrocatalysts, with reduced nitrate below drinking water standards and a N2 selectivity as high as 83% in a neutral electrolyte.