Electrocatalytic nitrate-to-ammonia conversion on CoO/CuO nanoarrays using Zn-nitrate batteries

Shanshan Chen; Gaocan Qi; Ruilian Yin; Qian Liu; Ligang Feng; Xincai Feng; Guangzhi Hu; Jun Luo; Xijun Liu; Wenxian Liu

doi:10.1039/d3nr05254k

Electrocatalytic nitrate-to-ammonia conversion on CoO/CuO nanoarrays using Zn-nitrate batteries

Nanoscale. 2023 Dec 14;15(48):19577-19585. doi: 10.1039/d3nr05254k.

Authors

Shanshan Chen¹, Gaocan Qi², Ruilian Yin³, Qian Liu⁴, Ligang Feng⁵, Xincai Feng⁶, Guangzhi Hu⁷, Jun Luo⁶, Xijun Liu⁸, Wenxian Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Institute for New Energy Materials & Low-Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China. gaocanqi@tjut.edu.cn.
³ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China. liuwx@zjut.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute for Advanced Study, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, Sichuan, China.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China.
⁶ ShenSi Lab, Shenzhen Institute for Advanced Study, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Longhua District, Shenzhen 518110, China.
⁷ Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, School of Ecology and Environmental Science Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, MOE Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China. xjliu@gxu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38014771
DOI: 10.1039/d3nr05254k

Abstract

Zn-NO₃^- batteries can generate electricity while producing NH₃ in an environmentally friendly manner, making them a very promising device. However, the conversion of NO₃^- to NH₃ involves a proton-assisted 8-electron (8e^-) transfer process with a high kinetic barrier, requiring high-performance catalysts to realize the potential applications of this technology. Herein, we propose a heterostructured CoO/CuO nanoarray electrocatalyst prepared on a copper foam (CoO/CuO-NA/CF) that can electrocatalytically and efficiently convert NO₃^- to NH₃ at low potential and achieves a maximum NH₃ yield of 296.9 μmol h^-1 cm^-2 and the Faraday efficiency (FE) of 92.9% at the -0.2 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). Impressively, Zn-NO₃^- battery based on the monolithic CoO/CuO-NA/CF electrode delivers a high NH₃ yield of 60.3 μmol h^-1 cm^-2, FE_NH3 of 82.0%, and a power density of 4.3 mW cm^-2. This study provides a paradigm for heterostructured catalyst preparation for the energy-efficient production of NH₃ and simultaneously generating electrical energy.