Electrocatalytic nitrate-to-ammonia conversion with ~100% Faradaic efficiency via single-atom alloying

Boosting Electrocatalytic Nitrate-to-Ammonia Conversion via Plasma Enhanced CuCo Alloy–Substrate Interaction

“…Compared to the high bonding energy of N 2 (NN, 948 kJ/mol), nitrate has inherent advantages of high aqueous solubility and easy activation of the NO bond (204 kJ/mol), and was recently proposed as a promising nitrogen source with a higher reaction rate and selectivity for NH 3 production. − Currently, nitrate is mainly produced by the Ostwald process via the oxidation of NH 3 , while its overuse in various industrial and agricultural activities might induce serious aqueous pollution as well as acid rain, photochemical smog, and soil damage. − Compared to directly recycling low-concentration nitrate from industrial wastewater, renewables-driven electrocatalytic nitrate reduction can alleviate the environmental risk load while providing a sustainable NH 3 production and facilitating the synthesis of NH 3 -based macromolecular chemicals (e.g., urea and amines). − However, the electrocatalytic nitrate reduction process is still challenging, due to the sluggish and complex eight-electron reaction process. In addition, the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) occupies the active sites on the surface of the electrocatalysts, thus hampering the adsorption of nitrate on catalysts and decreasing the targeted selectivity of NH 3 .…”

Cu-Doped Iron Oxide for the Efficient Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction Reaction

“…The peaks observed at 1.50 and 2.51 Å can be assigned to Cu–O and Cu–Fe, respectively . The absence of any peak at 2.24 Å for Cu-Fe 3 O 4 -5 indicates the absence of metallic Cu . The XANES and EXAFS spectra of the Fe K-edge for Cu-Fe 3 O 4 -5 are shown in Figure S7.…”

“…Figure 3a 30 The absence of any peak at 2.24 Å for Cu-Fe 3 O 4 -5 indicates the absence of metallic Cu. 31 The XANES and EXAFS spectra of the Fe K-edge for Cu-Fe 3 O 4 -5 are shown in Figure S7. The XANES spectrum of Cu-Fe 3 O 4 -5 exhibits a similar pattern to that of Fe 3 O 4 .…”

Free radicals promote electrocatalytic nitrogen oxidation

“…Nitrate plays an important role in promoting social progress and economic development, [1][2][3][4][5] because it is a material for growing fertilizers and explosives. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Nowadays, the industrial production of nitric acid mainly adopts high temperature (400-600 °C) and high pressure (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) conditions, involving a multi-step reaction Ostwald process, [13][14][15] which is a high energy consumption and high emission production process.…”