Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrate to Ammonia on Low-Cost Ultrathin CoOx Nanosheets

2021/12/06 by Jing Wang, Chao Cai, Yian Wang +6 · 6 citations
Chemical Engineering · Computer Science · Energy · #Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques #Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction #Caching and Content Delivery

paper · doi:10.1021/acscatal.1c03918

openalex publication_date 2021/12/06 · openalex created_date 2021/12/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

The electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NITRR) is an appealing method for ammonia synthesis, owing to the ambient conditions as well as its abundant sources, low dissociation energy, and high solubility of nitrate. The hydrogen evolution reaction is a competing process of the NITRR, which should be properly suppressed to achieve a high Faradaic efficiency of the NITRR. Herein, ultrathin CoO x nanosheets with abundant surface oxygen are designed as a low-cost NITRR catalyst, which delivers an ultrahigh ammonia yield of 82.4 4.8 mg h –1 mg cat –1 with a Faradaic efficiency of 93.4 3.8% at −0.3 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. Theoretical calculation reveals that the surface oxygen on cobalt sites can stabilize the adsorbed hydrogen on cobalt oxide, which hampers the evolution of hydrogen and leads to an enhanced NITRR activity. This work demonstrates that surface modification plays a critical role in suppressing the HER and facilitating the NITRR through a NHO pathway with a lower energy barrier.

Citations

• Trends in the Exchange Current for Hydrogen Evolution
• Restoring the Nitrogen Cycle by Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrate: Progress and Prospects
• A single-site iron catalyst with preoccupied active centers that achieves selective ammonia electrosynthesis from nitrate

Cited by

• Breaking Local Charge Symmetry of Iron Single Atoms for Efficient Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia
• Electrocatalytic conversion of nitrate waste into ammonia: a review
• Designing Efficient Nitrate Reduction Electrocatalysts by Identifying and Optimizing Active Sites of Co-Based Spinels
• Unveiling the Reaction Mechanism of Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia Over Cobalt-Based Electrocatalysts
• Recent advances in nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts for N-cycle electrocatalysis
• Recent Advances in Electrocatalysts for Efficient Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia

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