Design of material regulatory mechanism for electrocatalytic converting NO/NO₃⁻to NH₃progress

Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO)/nitrate (NO 3 − ) exists as the most hazardous pollutions in the air/water that severely impacts human health. Conventional disposing methods are energy-consuming and uneconomic. Moreover, ammonia (NH 3 ) fertilizer resources acquire urgent, eco-friendly, and economical strategies that can remove NO/NO 3 − pollution and simultaneously convert nitrate species, maintaining nitrogen balance.Electrochemical nitrogen (N) reduction is attracting more attention, particularly electrocatalytic NO/NO 3 − reduction (ENR) to ammonia supply an approach to fixed nitrogen and generate ammonia. ENR is capable of achieving high NH 3 yield and Faradaic efficiency (FE), avoiding competitive hydrogen evolution reactions and easily overcoming strong N≡N triple bond (941 kJ mol −1 ). There are abundant research studies related to ENR for decreasing hazardous NO/NO 3 − and supplying profitable NH 3 . In this review, we discuss different electrocatalytic regulations for crystalline facet engineering, heteroatom doping, heterostructure, surface vacancy engineering, and single-atom structure, which bring various metal/nonmetal and their combined catalysts to the preferable performance, such as reactivity, selectivity, FE, and stability. Finally, we summarize the challenges and provide the perspectives to promote the industrial application of ENR.

Catalysts for C–N coupling in urea electrosynthesis under ambient conditions from carbon dioxide and nitrogenous species

“…22 Matching the rates of adsorption and activation of NO and CO 2 on the active site is the key to catalysts with NO as the N source. 23 These small nitrogenous molecules (NO 3 − , NO 2 − , NO) are typically regarded as N-containing contamination in industry, but efficient strategies to remove and utilize them have not been explored. Utilizing these N sources directly can mitigate environmental pollution and promote the nitrogen neutrality cycle.…”

Theoretical Insights into the Selective Electrocatalytic Reduction of NO to NH3 on a Two-Dimensional Cu-Benzylthiol Metal–Organic Framework Nanostructure

“…To date, various materials have been explored for the electrocatalytic NORR from both experimental and theoretical perspectives, such as noble metals, alloys, metal oxides and single-atom catalysts (SACs) . Among these materials, SACs have been recognized as promising candidates, spanning beyond NORR to encompass a wide range of electrocatalytic reactions such as ORR, OER, and CO 2 RR .…”

Pathway toward Scalable Energy-Efficient Li-Mediated Ammonia Synthesis

“…As such, it is desired to synthesize NH 3 sustainably via fossil-free sources, and electrochemical synthesis provides an attractive option. Waste nitrates can be electrochemically reduced to NH 3 , and there has been considerable progress in the field. − Electrochemical synthesis of NH 3 by reducing N 2 in aqueous media is attractive as NH 3 can be synthesized from just air, water, and renewable electricity. However, the process is extremely challenging due to the low solubility of N 2 in water, the inert nature of N 2 , and the competing H 2 evolution reaction .…”