Ambient ammonia production via electrocatalytic nitrate reduction catalyzed by a flower-like CuCo2O4 electrocatalyst. Issue 10 (13th April 2022) - Wang, Jinlu
Abstract : The flower-shaped CuCo2 O4 spinel catalyst was used for electrochemical nitrate reduction in an electrolyte. Theoretical calculation shows that NO3 − can be adsorbed on CuCo2 O4 to form the *NOH intermediate, so as to obtain a good yield rate and FE. Abstract : The electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NtRR) under ambient conditions is regarded as a potential approach to achieve NH3 production, which currently heavily relies on the Haber–Bosch process at the cost of a huge amount of energy and the massive production of CO2 . Herein, a flower-like CuCo2 O4 spinel was synthesized via a two-step urea-assisted hydrothermal treatment and calcination process. When used as the electrocatalyst for the NtRR, the as-synthesized CuCo2 O4 spinel exhibits a high electrocatalytic activity, affording a high NH3 yield rate of 48.8 μg h −1 cm −2 at −0.85 V ( vs. RHE) and a high faradaic efficiency (FE) of 34.2% at −0.45 V ( vs. RHE). The 15 N isotopic labelling experiments confirm that the yielded NH3 is, indeed, from the CuCo2 O4 spinel catalyzed NtRR process. Our theoretical calculations results reveal that the NO3 − can be adsorbed on the CuCo2 O4 to form the *NOH intermediate, leading to a good selectivity and FE.