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Levitation-guided disorder engineering unlocks efficient nitrite-to-ammonia electroconversion
Industrial Chemistry & Materials 2026, 4(5): 690-705
Published: 18 May 2026
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Electrocatalytic conversion of nitrite (NO2) to ammonia (NH3) via the NO2 reduction reaction (eNO2RR) presents a promising approach. Prussian blue analog (PBA)–based electrocatalysts are potential candidates for eNO2RR owing to their good activity and selectivity. Herein, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time, we report a facile synthesis of a flower-like copper (Cu)–cobalt (Co) PBA sulfide (CuCoPBA-S) using pulsed laser irradiation in liquid and investigate its formation mechanism using acoustic levitation coupled with in situ Raman spectroscopy. This approach enables contaminant-free, rapid, and cost-effective synthesis of electrocatalysts. The sulfurization process is shown to be time-dependent in the formation of ordered/disordered flower-like CuCoPBA-S structures. CuCoPBA-S considerably influences the eNO2RR, achieving a NH3 faradaic efficiency (FE) of 80.91% and an NH3 yield rate of 3394.1 μg h−1 cm−2 at a fixed potential of −0.5 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). Moreover, density functional theory analysis validates the eNO2RR pathway facilitated by CuCoPBA-S during the electrocatalytic conversion of NO2 to NH3, and the rate-determining step in the pathway is the hydrogenation of *NH2O to *NH2OH.

Open Access Research Article Issue
Sustainable Furfural Biomass Feedstocks Electrooxidation toward Value-Added Furoic Acid with Energy-Saving H2 Fuel Production Using Pt-Decorated Co3O4 Nanospheres
Energy & Environmental Materials 2024, 7(2): e12563
Published: 30 November 2022
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Here, furfural oxidation was performed to replace the kinetically sluggish O2 evolution reaction (OER). Pt-Co3O4 nanospheres were developed via pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) in a single step for the paired electrocatalysis of an H2 evolution reaction (HER) and furfural oxidation reaction (FOR). The FOR afforded a high furfural conversion (44.2%) with a major product of 2-furoic acid after a 2-h electrolysis at 1.55 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode in a 1.0-M KOH/50-mM furfural electrolyte. The Pt-Co3O4 electrode exhibited a small overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm−2. As an anode and cathode in an electrolyzer system, the Pt-Co3O4 electrocatalyst required only a small applied cell voltage of ~1.83 V to deliver 10 mA cm−2, compared with that of the pure water electrolyzer (OER||HER, ~1.99 V). This study simultaneously realized the integrated production of energy-saving H2 fuel at the cathode and 2-furoic acid at the anode.

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