Enhancing Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia over Cu Nanosheets via Facet Tandem Catalysis

2023/04/29 by Yunfan Fu, Shuo Wang, Yi Wang +5
Chemical Engineering · Computer Science · Energy · #Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques #Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction #Caching and Content Delivery

paper · doi:10.1002/anie.202303327

openalex publication_date 2023/04/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Abstract Electrochemical conversion of nitrate (NO 3 − ) into ammonia (NH 3 ) represents a potential way for achieving carbon‐free NH 3 production while balancing the nitrogen cycle. Herein we report a high‐performance Cu nanosheets catalyst which delivers a NH 3 partial current density of 665 mA cm −2 and NH 3 yield rate of 1.41 mmol h −1 cm −2 in a flow cell at −0.59 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode. The catalyst showed a high stability for 700 h with NH 3 Faradaic efficiency of ≈88 % at 365 mA cm −2 . In situ spectroscopy results verify that Cu nanosheets are in situ derived from the as‐prepared CuO nanosheets under electrochemical NO 3 − reduction reaction conditions. Electrochemical measurements and density functional theory calculations indicate that the high performance is attributed to the tandem interaction of Cu(100) and Cu(111) facets. The NO 2 − generated on the Cu(100) facets is subsequently hydrogenated on the Cu(111) facets, thus the tandem catalysis promotes the crucial hydrogenation of *NO to *NOH for NH 3 production.

Citations

• Unveiling the Activity Origin of a Copper‐based Electrocatalyst for Selective Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia
• Enhanced Nitrate-to-Ammonia Activity on Copper–Nickel Alloys via Tuning of Intermediate Adsorption
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• A Roadmap to the Ammonia Economy
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• Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction for Sustainable Ammonia Production
• Nitrate reduction to ammonium: from CuO defect engineering to waste NO _x -to-NH ₃ economic feasibility
• Reaction intermediate-mediated electrocatalyst synthesis favors specified facet and defect exposure for efficient nitrate–ammonia conversion
• Theoretical Insights into Superior Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia Performance of Copper Catalysts
• Splicing the active phases of copper/cobalt-based catalysts achieves high-rate tandem electroreduction of nitrate to ammonia
• Efficient Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia with Copper‐Supported Rhodium Cluster and Single‐Atom Catalysts
• Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia on defective Au1Cu (111) single-atom alloys
• Efficient conversion of low-concentration nitrate sources into ammonia on a Ru-dispersed Cu nanowire electrocatalyst

Related

• Ampere-level current density ammonia electrochemical synthesis using CuCo nanosheets simulating nitrite reductase bifunctional nature
• Efficient tandem electroreduction of nitrate into ammonia through coupling Cu single atoms with adjacent Co3O4
• Electrocatalytic Nitrate and Nitrite Reduction toward Ammonia Using Cu₂O Nanocubes: Active Species and Reaction Mechanisms
• Single‐Atom Cu Catalysts for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction with Significant Alleviation of Nitrite Production
• Splicing the active phases of copper/cobalt-based catalysts achieves high-rate tandem electroreduction of nitrate to ammonia