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Screening of transition metal oxides for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia at large currents

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Abstract

Electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) towards ammonia, as an emerging and appealing technology alternative to the energy-intensive Haber–Bosch process and inefficient nitrogen reduction reaction, has recently aroused wide concern and research. However, the current research of the NO3RR towards ammonia lacks the overall performance comparison of various electrocatalysts. Given this, we here make a comparison of 12 common transition metal oxide catalysts for the NO3RR under a high cathodic current density of 0.25 A·cm−2, wherein Co3O4 catalyst displays the highest ammonia Faradaic efficiency (85.15%) and moderate activity (ca. −0.25 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode). Other external factors, such as nitrate concentrations in the electrolyte and applied potential ranges, have also been specifically investigated for the NO3RR.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (No. 20720210010), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22001081 and 22075236), and the Science and Technology Projects of Innovation Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies of Energy Materials of Fujian Province (IKKEM, No. HRTP-[2022]-7).

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  1. Qiongfei Wu and Weijie Zhu contributed equally to this work.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Qiongfei Wu, Weijie Zhu, Dongxu Ma, Zhoucheng Wang & Hanfeng Liang

  2. College of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Chao Liang

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  1. Qiongfei Wu
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Wu, Q., Zhu, W., Ma, D. et al. Screening of transition metal oxides for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia at large currents. Nano Res. 17, 3902–3910 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6379-2

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