@article{Zhu2025, 
author = {Chun Zhu and Yifei Yang and Yike Jing and Zhen Zeng and Xuesong Yi and Wei Sun and Fei Yang},
title = {Surface embedded binary Co-Cu hydroxy phosphate over surface of oxy/hydroxides for efficient nitrate reduction to ammonia},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {1},
pages = {94907048},
keywords = {nitrate reduction, hydroxy phosphate, surface embedded, water dissociation, active hydroxy adsorbed},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907048},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907048},
abstract = {Electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) to ammonia is a promising approach to address excess N-contamination in aqueous environment but suffers from a limited ammonia yield and selectivity due to the low concentration and sluggish kinetics. This work reports a three-dimensional porous electrode with binary Co2Cu1 hydroxy phosphate embedded into the surface of Ni3Co1 oxy/hydroxides (CoCu-PH@NiCo/Ni, “PH” means phosphate-hydroxide), which delivers a yield of 4.13 mg·h−1·cm−2 with a high Faraday efficiency of 92.6% under a low nitrate concentration of 40 mM and provide an impressive stability. This embedded structure of the as-prepared catalyst exhibits unique metal coordination ligands and valence states different from the unitary hydroxy-phosphate. The electrochemical in situ infrared spectra and theoretical calculations revealed that the Co sites with the ability to dissociate water molecular to form adsorbed OH* can effectively provide the required protons for the deoxygenation and hydrogenation steps during NO3− conversion, thereby, effectively reducing the energy barrier of the key transition states in the NO3RR process to improve the intrinsic kinetics. We demonstrate that the rational design of binary components with the appropriate ability to activate water molecules as well as the three-dimensional porous skeletal structure are expected to promote effectively the low-concentration nitrates conversion to ammonia.}
}