Ambient Ammonia Synthesis via Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrate Enabled by NiCo2 O4 Nanowire Array

Qian Liu; Lisi Xie; Jie Liang; Yuchun Ren; Yuanyuan Wang; Longcheng Zhang; Luchao Yue; Tingshuai Li; Yongsong Luo; Na Li; Bo Tang; Yang Liu; Shuyan Gao; Abdulmohsen Ali Alshehri; Imran Shakir; Philips O Agboola; Qingquan Kong; Qingyuan Wang; Dongwei Ma; Xuping Sun

doi:10.1002/smll.202106961

Ambient Ammonia Synthesis via Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrate Enabled by NiCo₂ O₄ Nanowire Array

Small. 2022 Apr;18(13):e2106961. doi: 10.1002/smll.202106961. Epub 2022 Feb 10.

Authors

Qian Liu¹, Lisi Xie¹, Jie Liang², Yuchun Ren², Yuanyuan Wang³, Longcheng Zhang², Luchao Yue², Tingshuai Li², Yongsong Luo², Na Li⁴, Bo Tang⁴, Yang Liu⁵, Shuyan Gao⁵, Abdulmohsen Ali Alshehri⁶, Imran Shakir⁷, Philips O Agboola⁷, Qingquan Kong¹, Qingyuan Wang¹, Dongwei Ma³, Xuping Sun²

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Advanced Study, Chengdu University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610106, China.
² Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610054, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan, 475004, China.
⁴ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, Shandong, 250014, China.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan, 453007, China.
⁶ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ College of Engineering Al-Muzahmia Branch, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh, 11421, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 35146914
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202106961

Abstract

NiCo₂ O₄ nanowire array on carbon cloth (NiCo₂ O₄ /CC) is proposed as a highly active electrocatalyst for ambient nitrate (NO₃ ^- ) reduction to ammonia (NH₃ ). In 0.1 m NaOH solution with 0.1 m NaNO₃ , such NiCo₂ O₄ /CC achieves a high Faradic efficiency of 99.0% and a large NH₃ yield up to 973.2 µmol h^-1 cm^-2 . The superior catalytic activity of NiCo₂ O₄ comes from its half-metal feature and optimized adsorption energy due to the existence of Ni in the crystal structure. A Zn-NO₃ ^- battery with NiCo₂ O₄ /CC cathode also shows a record-high battery performance.

Keywords: NiCo 2O 4 nanowire arrays; ammonia electrosynthesis; density functional theory; electrocatalysis; nitrate reduction reaction.

Grants and funding

22072015/National Natural Science Foundation of China