Electrochemical Reduction of Gaseous Nitrogen Oxides on Transition Metals at Ambient Conditions

2022/01/11 by Byung Hee Ko, Bjorn Hasa, Haeun Shin +2 · 25 citations
Chemical Engineering · Computer Science · Materials Science · #Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction #Caching and Content Delivery #Catalytic Processes in Materials Science

paper · doi:10.1021/jacs.1c10535

openalex publication_date 2022/01/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Mitigating nitrogen oxide (NO x ) emissions is critical to tackle global warming and improve air quality. Conventional NO x abatement technologies for emission control suffer from a low efficiency at near ambient temperatures. Herein, we show an electrochemical pathway to reduce gaseous NO x that can be conducted at high reaction rates (400 mA cm –2 ) under ambient conditions. Various transition metals are evaluated for electrochemical reduction of NO and N 2 O to reveal the role of electrocatalyst in determining the product selectivity. Specifically, Cu is highly selective toward NH 3 formation with >80% Faradaic efficiency in NO electroreduction. Furthermore, the partial pressure study of NO electroreduction revealed that a high NO coverage facilitates the N–N coupling reaction. In acidic electrolytes, the formation of NH 3 is greatly favored, whereas the N 2 production is suppressed. Additional mechanistic studies were conducted by using flow electrochemical mass spectrometry to gain further insights into reaction pathways. This work provides a promising avenue toward abating gaseous NO x emissions at ambient conditions by using renewable electricity.

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