Achieving efficient and stable electrochemical nitrate removal by in-situ reconstruction of Cu2O/Cu electroactive nanocatalysts on Cu foam

Recent Advances in Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia: Mechanism Insight and Catalyst Design

“…How does the designed electrocatalyst improve the performance of electrocatalytic nitrate? Most of the papers give a reasonable answer to this problem by the DFT calculations. − According to the literature, it can be found that the formation of NO 3 – or NH 3 – or HNO may be a potential-dependent step (PDS) on different electrocatalysts. ,, The energy barrier of PDS can be reduced by rational design of catalysts, which can improve the nitrate reduction performance. In addition, some literature suggests that the electrocatalysts with high nitrate reduction performance had an outstanding suppressing effect on H 2 evolution. − As shown in Figure , the Gibbs free energies of electrocatalytic NRA and free energy of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on the Cu, Cu@Cu-CuO, and CuO samples were calculated .…”

Cu26 Nanoclusters with Quintuple Ligand Shells for CO2 Electrocatalytic Reduction

“…Atomically precise metal nanoclusters with a crystal structure determined remain a unique class of nanomaterials in terms of their role in illustrating structure–property relationships. − With size, composition, and structure precisely determinable and readily tunable, metal nanoclusters have found wide applications in fields including catalysis, biology, and electronics. − Such nanocatalysts with molecular characteristics have especially been regarded as model systems to probe catalytically active sites and uncover the reaction mechanism of nanocatalysis at the molecular level. − The past several decades have thus witnessed significant efforts in optimizing the activity, selectivity, and stability of cluster-based catalysts in various chemical transformations via multiple strategies such as ligand engineering, composition tuning, and structure tailoring. − In the progress, the reactions have been extended from thermal catalysis and electrocatalysis to photocatalysis, ligands from phosphine, thiol, and alkynyl to N -heterocyclic carbene, and metals from gold, silver, and copper to platinum and palladium. ,− ,− …”

Metal–organic framework-derived Cu nanoparticle binder-free monolithic electrodes with multiple support structures for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia

“…The Cu-based catalysts exhibit remarkable electrocatalytic NRA activity owing to their prominent conductivity and unique electronic structure. 11,17,18 Nevertheless, the Cu-based catalysts have many disadvantages, for example, unsatisfactory ammonia yield, enormous amounts of nitrite as a by-product, and poor stability due to surface metal leaching and particle aggregation. 11,19,20 Pure Cu electrocatalysts are susceptible to surface poisoning due to the accumulation of byproducts.…”