Heterostructured Co‐Doped‐Cu<sub>2</sub>O/Cu Synergistically Promotes Water Dissociation for Improved Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia
Yanbin Qu, Tianyi Dai, Yuhuan Cui, Guopeng Ding, Yongfu Zhu, Zhili Wang, Qing Jiang
Abstract
Abstract Electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO 3 RR) has recently emerged as a promising approach for sustainable ammonia synthesis and wastewater treatment, while the activity and selectivity for ammonia production have remained low. Herein, rational design and controllable synthesis of heterostructured Co‐doped Cu 2 O/Cu nanoparticles embedded in carbon framework (Co‐Cu 2 O/Cu@C) is reported for NO 3 RR. The Co‐Cu 2 O/Cu@C exhibits a high ammonia yield rate of 37.86 mg h −1 mg −1 cat. with 98.1% Faraday efficiency, which is higher than those obtained for most of the Cu‐based catalysts under similar conditions. Density functional theory calculations indicated that the strong electronic interactions at Cu/Co‐Cu 2 O interface facilitate the N species deoxygenation process and doping of Co promotes water dissociation to generate * H for the N species hydrogenation process, leading to enhanced NO 3 RR performance. This work provides a new design strategy toward high‐performance catalysts toward NO 3 RR for ammonia generation.