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Nitrate (NO3), a nitrogen-containing pollutant, is prevalent in aqueous solutions, contributing to a range of environmental and health-related issues. The electrocatalytic reduction of NO3 holds promise as a sustainable approach to both eliminating NO3 and generating valuable ammonia (NH3). Nevertheless, the reduction reaction of NO3 (NO3RR), involving 8-electron transfer process, is intricate, necessitating highly efficient electrocatalysts to facilitate the conversion of NO3 to NH3. In this study, Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted three-dimensional (3D) pinewood-derived carbon (Fe-Co3O4/PC) is proposed as a high-efficiency NO3RR electrocatalyst for NH3 production. Operating within 0.1 M NaOH containing NO3, Fe-Co3O4/PC demonstrates exceptional performance, obtain an impressively large NH3 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 Co3O4/PC counterpart (0.2 mmol·h−1·cm−2, 73.3%). Furthermore, the study delves into the reaction mechanism of Fe-Co3O4 for NO3RR through theoretical calculations.


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Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted 3D pinewood-derived carbon: A highly selective electrocatalyst for ammonia production via nitrate reduction

Show Author's information Xuwei Liu1Chaozhen Liu2Xun He1Zhengwei Cai3Kai Dong3Jun Li1Xiaoya Fan1Ting Xie1Xiya Yang1Yonglan Luo1Dongdong Zheng3Shengjun Sun3Sulaiman Alfaifi4Feng Gong2( )Xuping Sun1,3( )
Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China
Chemistry Department, Frontier of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Nitrate (NO3), a nitrogen-containing pollutant, is prevalent in aqueous solutions, contributing to a range of environmental and health-related issues. The electrocatalytic reduction of NO3 holds promise as a sustainable approach to both eliminating NO3 and generating valuable ammonia (NH3). Nevertheless, the reduction reaction of NO3 (NO3RR), involving 8-electron transfer process, is intricate, necessitating highly efficient electrocatalysts to facilitate the conversion of NO3 to NH3. In this study, Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted three-dimensional (3D) pinewood-derived carbon (Fe-Co3O4/PC) is proposed as a high-efficiency NO3RR electrocatalyst for NH3 production. Operating within 0.1 M NaOH containing NO3, Fe-Co3O4/PC demonstrates exceptional performance, obtain an impressively large NH3 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 Co3O4/PC counterpart (0.2 mmol·h−1·cm−2, 73.3%). Furthermore, the study delves into the reaction mechanism of Fe-Co3O4 for NO3RR through theoretical calculations.

Keywords: density functional theory, NH3 synthesis, Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire, pinewood-derived carbon, electrocatalytic NO3 reduction

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 25 August 2023
Revised: 14 September 2023
Accepted: 14 September 2023
Published: 23 October 2023
Issue date: April 2024

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