@article{Yuan2025, 
author = {Di Yuan and Wenyu Du and Dongwei Ma and Ke Chu},
title = {Efficient and sustainable urea synthesis on a bifunctional catalyst},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {11},
pages = {94907910},
keywords = {electrocatalysis, atomically dispersed catalysts, plasma activation, urea electrosynthesis},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907910},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907910},
abstract = {Electrochemical co-reduction of CO2 and nitrogen sources (N2 or NO3−) provides a promising route for ambient urea synthesis, yet suffers from low conversion efficiency or reliance on fossil fuel-derived NH3/NO3−. Herein, we present an integrated plasma-electrocatalytic route for sustainable urea synthesis from ambient air, which involves the initial plasma-driven air oxidation to form NOx− and followed by electrocatalytic co-reduction of CO2 + NOx− to produce urea. Specially, a bifunctional BiSA/a-MoO3 catalyst (isolated Bi single atom on amorphous MoO3) was designed to promote both plasma and electrocatalytic processes, consequently achieving the exceptional urea yield rate of 55.9 mmol·h−1·g−1 and Faradaic efficiency of 59.7%. The combined theoretical calculations and in situ spectroscopic measurements reveal the synergy of BiSA and unsaturated Mo sites in boosting the C–N coupling of *COOH and *NH2 intermediates for selective urea formation.}
}