Increasing electrocatalytic nitrate reduction activity by controlling adsorption through PtRu alloying

Elucidating the activity, mechanism and application of selective electrosynthesis of ammonia from nitrate on cobalt phosphide

“…During the past few years, aqueous-based electrochemical reduction of N 2 to NH 3 (nitrogen reduction reaction, NRR) has received some attention, but the highly stable and apolar NN bond (bond energy of 941 kJ mol −1 ), as well as the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and limited N 2 solubility result in ultra-low reactive rates (<10 mmol g cat −1 h −1 ), selectivity and faradaic efficiency. 6,7,10,11 In contrast, the electrochemical reduction of nitrate to NH 3 (nitrate reduction reaction, NO 3 − RR, NO 3 − + 6H 2 O + 8e − → NH 3 + 9OH − ) is an alternative and attractive route for low-temperature ammonia synthesis due to the following advantages: (1) deoxygenation of NO 3 − requires a much lower energy of 204 kJ mol −1 , 12 thus the NO 3 − RR is energy-efficient compared to the Haber–Bosch process and NRR; (2) the source of nitrate is widespread. Nitrate-rich wastewater streams are available for the NO 3 − RR since nitrate is extensively found in industrial and agricultural runoff.…”

“…Nitrate-rich wastewater streams are available for the NO 3 − RR since nitrate is extensively found in industrial and agricultural runoff. 6,7,10,11 Moreover, given the wide distribution of niter ore (mainly in Chile and China's Turpan Basin), it is also available for the NO 3 − RR. Extensive and abundant nitrate reserves make the NO 3 − RR available for large-scale ammonia production; (3) nitrate release pollutes ground and surface waters thereby disturbing ecosystems.…”

Co–NCNT nanohybrid as a highly active catalyst for the electroreduction of nitrate to ammonia

“…22,23 There is a great need to find efficient electrocatalysts for the NO 3 À reduction reaction (NO 3 RR) for selective NH 3 synthesis. Recent studies show that noble metal materials are active for NO 3 RR, [24][25][26][27][28][29] but high costs and scarce reserves restrict their industrial-scale application. As a result, research interest has shifted towards developing non-noble metal electrocatalysts 32 for NO 3 À electroreduction.…”

Breaking adsorption-energy scaling limitations of electrocatalytic nitrate reduction on intermetallic CuPd nanocubes by machine-learned insights

“…Single-crystal experiments showed that NO 3 RR on Cu is structure sensitive with (100)-oriented surface sites more active toward NH 3 formation than the (111) counterparts 5 . A series of random alloy electrocatalysts (e.g., CuNi 6 , CuRh 7 , and PtRu 8 ) have been synthesized for NO 3 RR with a general tradeoff of the partial current density and FE, arguably due to the ubiquitous adsorption-energy scaling relations. Many strategies have been visioned to circumvent such energy-scaling limitations 9 on catalytic performance, such as tuning strain 10 and ligand 11 , designing bifunctional 12 or molecular single-site catalysts 13 , and imposing nanoscopic confinement 14 .…”