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Efficient electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate to ammonia at low concentration by copper-cobalt oxide nanowires with shell–core structure

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Abstract

Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia (NO3−RR) for removing nitrate from wastewater is a promising but challengeable technology that is increasingly studied. Herein, we developed an efficient CuOx and CoCuOx composed hybrid catalyst (CoCuOx@CuOx/copper foam (CF)), characteristic of distinctive shell–core nanowires grown on CF substrate with CuOx core and CoCuOx shell. The built-in electric field formed at the interface of the CoO/Cu2O heterostructure promotes NO3− adsorption by modulating the charge distribution at the interface, which greatly improves the ammonia yield rate and Faradaic efficiency. At −0.2 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), CoCuOx@CuOx/CF achieves not only an excellent ammonia yield rate of up to 519.1 µg·h−1·cm−2 and Faradaic efficiency of 99.83% at 1 mM NO3− concentration, but also excellent mechanical stabilities. This study provides a novel pathway to design electrocatalyst for the removal of nitrate from dilute nitric acid solutions (≤ 2 mM).

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22204119) and Science and Technology Plans of Tianjin (No. 22ZYJDSS00070).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Chemistry, Tiangong University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Chenhao Xiao, Yaxiao Guo, Jiayuan Sun, Tao Guo, Shinuo Guo, Guancheng Wu, Yue Sun & Yi Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Xinyuan Jia & Zhaoyang Yao

  3. School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan, 430023, China

    Yi Liu

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  1. Chenhao Xiao
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  2. Yaxiao Guo
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  3. Jiayuan Sun
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  4. Tao Guo
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  10. Yi Liu
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Correspondence to Yaxiao Guo or Yi Liu.

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Efficient electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate to ammonia at low concentration by copper-cobalt oxide nanowires with shell–core structure

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Xiao, C., Guo, Y., Sun, J. et al. Efficient electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate to ammonia at low concentration by copper-cobalt oxide nanowires with shell–core structure. Nano Res. 17, 5087–5094 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6530-8

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