Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted 3D pinewood-derived carbon: A highly selective electrocatalyst for ammonia production via nitrate reduction
Xuwei Liu, Chaozhen Liu, Xun He, Zhengwei Cai, Kai Dong, Jun Li, Xiaoya Fan, Ting Xie, Xiya Yang, Yonglan Luo, Dongdong Zheng, Shengjun Sun, Sulaiman Alfaifi, Feng Gong, Xuping Sun
Abstract
Nitrate (NO 3 − ), a nitrogen-containing pollutant, is prevalent in aqueous solutions, contributing to a range of environmental and health-related issues. The electrocatalytic reduction of NO 3 − holds promise as a sustainable approach to both eliminating NO 3 − and generating valuable ammonia (NH 3 ). Nevertheless, the reduction reaction of NO 3 − (NO 3 − RR), involving 8-electron transfer process, is intricate, necessitating highly efficient electrocatalysts to facilitate the conversion of NO 3 − to NH 3 . In this study, Fedoped Co 3 O 4 nanowire strutted three-dimensional (3D) pinewood-derived carbon (Fe-Co 3 O 4 /PC) is proposed as a high-efficiency NO 3 − RR electrocatalyst for NH 3 production. Operating within 0.1 M NaOH containing NO 3 − , Fe-Co 3 O 4 /PC demonstrates exceptional performance, obtain an impressively large NH 3 yield of 0.55 mmol·h −1 ·cm −2 and an exceptionally high Faradaic efficiency of 96.5% at −0.5 V, superior to its Co 3 O 4 /PC counterpart (0.2 mmol·h −1 ·cm −2 , 73.3%). Furthermore, the study delves into the reaction mechanism of Fe-Co 3 O 4 for NO 3 − RR through theoretical calculations.