Electrocatalytic nitrite-to-ammonia reduction on isolated Cu sites

Yuying Wan; Wenyu Du; Kai Chen; Nana Zhang; Ke Chu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.071

Electrocatalytic nitrite-to-ammonia reduction on isolated Cu sites

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Dec 15;652(Pt B):2180-2185. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.071. Epub 2023 Sep 11.

Authors

Yuying Wan¹, Wenyu Du¹, Kai Chen¹, Nana Zhang¹, Ke Chu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China. Electronic address: chuk630@mail.lzjtu.cn.

PMID: 37709610
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.071

Abstract

We report that isolated Cu atoms anchored on MnO₂ nanowires (Cu₁/MnO₂) can be an effective catalyst towards the electrocatalytic NO₂^--to-NH₃ reduction (NO₂RR). A combination of experiments and theoretical calculations reveals that isolated Cu sites can effectively activate NO₂^-, lower the energy barrier of *NO→*NOH rate-determining step and suppress the competitive hydrogen evolution, thus facilitating both activity and selectivity towards the NO₂RR. As a result, Cu₁/MnO₂ shows the maximum NH₃-Faradaic efficiency of 93.3% with a corresponding NH₃ yield rate of 439.8 μmol h^-1 cm^-2 at -0.7 V vs. RHE, together with an excellent electrocatalytic durability.

Keywords: Cu single-atom catalyst; Electrocatalytic NO(2)(–)-to-NH(3) reduction; Theoretical simulations.