@article{Huang2025, 
author = {Yachang Huang and Xia Hu and Haifeng Yuan and Yange Zhang and Manying Liu and Dekun Ma},
title = {Synergistic Cr2O3 nanoparticle/Cu nanosheet heterojunction for highly efficient electrosynthesis of urea under ultralow applied potentials},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {10},
pages = {94907989},
keywords = {synergistic effect, urea electrosynthesis, Cr2O3/Cu heterojunction, CO2 and NO3− co-reduction},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907989},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907989},
abstract = {Although Cu possesses many unique advantages for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), it is not suitable for electrosynthesis of urea from CO2 and NO3− because of high energy barriers for the formation of *COOH and *CO intermediates and C–N bonds. Herein, Cr2O3 nanoparticle (NP)/Cu nanosheet (NS) heterojunction electrocatalysts are reported for highly efficient electrocatalytic co-reduction of CO2 and NO3− toward urea production. The strongly coupled heterostructure interface between Cr2O3 NPs and Cu NSs exhibits synergistic effect and optimizes the adsorption of intermediates. The resultant heterojunction electrocatalysts could achieve a high urea Faradaic efficiency (FEurea) of 62% at an ultralow applied potential of 0 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), which is among the best results reported to date. Moreover, the electrocatalysts showed good recycling stability. The in-situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that the Cr2O3 NPs/Cu NSs heterostructure could not only reduce formation energy barriers of *COOH and *CO intermediates but also promote the coupling of *CO and *NH2 to form C–N bonds, leading to a high FEurea. This study demonstrates a heterojunction engineering strategy for the rational design of high-performance Cu-based electrocatalysts for urea generation.}
}