Co Nanoparticles Decorated Corncob-Derived Biomass Carbon as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia
Ting Xie, Xiuhong Li, Jun Li, Jie Chen, Shengjun Sun, Yongsong Luo, Qian Liu, Donglin Zhao, Chenggang Xu, Lisi Xie, Xuping Sun
Abstract
Nitrate (NO3–) is a type of common pollutant in aqueous systems. Electrochemical NO3– reduction is an ecofriendly and sustainable strategy, which can selectively reduce NO3– to highly value-added NH3 and remove NO3– pollutants at the same time. In this work, Co nanoparticles decorated corncob-derived biomass carbon as a highly active electrocatalyst for NO3– to NH3 conversion. Such a catalyst can achieve an amazing Faradaic efficiency of 93.4% and a large NH3 yield of 0.60 mmol h–1 cm–2 in alkaline media. 15N-Labeling experiment proves that the detected NH3 is derived from NO3– electroreduction. In addition, it also displays excellent durability in long-term and cycle-electrolysis tests.