Abstract
Excessive nitrates are among the most concerned pollutants in surface, ground and industrial waters. The development of novel materials and technologies for wastewater treatment from nitrate is an urgent task. The electrocatalytic reduction technology is a friendly environmental and promising technology to remove nitrate. In order to realize the recycling of sewage, the conversion of nitrate into high value-added ammonia by cathode materials is a direction worthy of research. In this paper, the novel Cu–Sn bimetallic cathode was prepared using electrodeposition method to convert nitrate in water to ammonia. The surface morphology, element composition and crystalline structure of the Cu–Sn bimetallic cathode was probed by SEM, EDS and XRD. The experiments of the removal of \({\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - }\)–N by electrocatalytic reduction on the Cu–Sn cathode were performed in a single compartment electrolytic cell. The results showed that the particles on the surface of Cu–Sn cathode coating were fine and evenly distributed, which was beneficial to catalysis. The mass fraction of Cu and Sn on the surface of Cu–Sn coating was 21.36 and 78.64%. The alloy phases of CuSn and Cu10Sn3 were formed in the coating of the cathode. For the Cu-Sn cathode, the removal ratio of \({\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - }\)–N was 34.4% and the selective of \({\text{NH}}_{4}^{ + }\)–N was 100% under the optimum conditions of the current density of 10 mA cm–2 and pH of 10. The nitrate reduction on the Cu–Sn cathode was consistent with the pseudo first-order kinetic equation. Through the analysis of the action mechanism of metal elements and comparison with Cu–Bi cathode, a possible path of nitrate reduction on the Cu–Sn cathode and Cu–Bi cathode was proposed. The obtained results have an important guiding significance for the conversion of the nitrate in wastewater into useful ammonia by electrocatalytic reduction technology.
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Funding
The project was sponsored by LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program (nos. XLYC1908034 and XLYC2007170), Liaoning Province Research Center for Wastewater Treatment and Reuse and “Jie Bang Gua Shuai” Key Technologies R&D Program of Liaoning Province.
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Dan Li, Gao, W., Geng, C. et al. Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrate to Ammonia by Cu–Sn Alloy Cathode. J. Water Chem. Technol. 44, 335–343 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1063455X22050022
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S1063455X22050022