Phase-dependent Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia on Janus Cu@Ni Tandem Catalyst
Yao‐Yin Lou, Qizheng Zheng, Shiyuan Zhou, Jia-Yi Fang, Ouardia Akdim, Xingyu Ding, Rena Oh, Gyeong‐Su Park, Xiaoyang Huang, Shi‐Gang Sun
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Electrosynthesis of NH 3 from nitrate anion (NO 3 – ) reduction (NO 3 – RR) is a cascade reaction, which is considered a great potential alternative to the Haber–Bosch route to reduce CO 2 emissions and alleviate the adverse effects of excessive NO 3 – contamination in the environment. Frequently, solid solution alloys (SSAs) with a single-phase active site may struggle to fully utilize their benefits during the entire process of nitrate (NO 3 – ) reduction, which involves multiple intermediate reactions. In this study, we showed that by separating Cu and Ni in a Janus Cu@Ni catalyst structure, we can achieve high performance in NO 3 – RR, yielding a high Faradaic efficiency (92.5%) and a production rate of NH 3 (1127 mmol h –1 g –1 ) at −0.2 V versus RHE, compared to CuNi SSA (82.6%, 264 mmol h –1 g –1 ). Here, we demonstrate that a Janus Cu@Ni catalyst with short-range ordered catalytic sites favors the adsorption of NO through a bridge-bond mode. Simultaneously, a hydrogen spillover process was observed, in which Ni dissociates H 2 O to generate *H which spontaneously migrates to adjacent catalytic sites to hydrogenate the *NO x intermediates. This facilitates N–O bond cleavage, resulting in the NH 3 production rate nearly 5 times higher than that of CuNi SSA, where NO was linearly bonded on its surface. The study of this catalytic effect, a cooperative tandem enhancement, provides insights into the design of multifunctional heterogeneous catalysts for electrochemical NH 3 synthesis.