| Abstract |
Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction is one of the most promising technology for removing harmful nitrate from water while simultaneously producing value-added ammonia. Regulating the internal structure of the benchmark electrocatalyst copper can further improve nitrate-to-ammonia conversion performance. Herein, we synthesized a series of hollow multi-shell structured Cu2O nanospheres (NSs) via a multistep Ostwald ripening method, and evaluated their nitrate-to-ammonia conversion performance. Results show that 2-shell Cu2O NSs demonstrated the highest nitrate conversion (98.1 %), ammonia selectivity (80.2 %), ammonia Faradic efficiency (70.3 %) and reaction rate constant (0.03 min−1) for nitrate-to-ammonia conversion. Important influencing factors are also examined including applied potentials and nitrate concentrations. Mechanistic study unravels that the outstanding electrocatalytic performance of 2-shell Cu2O NSs originates from the strongest nitrite adsorption so as to enhance nitrate-to-ammonia conversion. Materials characterizations verify that Cu2O NSs were reduced to metallic copper that severed as the real active site during electrocatalytic nitrate reduction. This work unveils the interior structure-dependent electrocatalytic performance of Cu2O NSs for nitrate-to-ammonia conversion, which offers a practical strategy to design structurally novel heterogeneous catalysts for various applications. |
| Authors |
Jiayin Li  , Huihuang Chen , Maohong Fan  , Ruixia Shi , Bo Yang , Ke Sun
|
| Journal Info |
Elsevier BV | Electrochimica Acta , vol: 477
, pages: 143789 - 143789
|
| Publication Date |
2/1/2024 |
| ISSN |
0013-4686 |
Type |
article |
| Open Access |
closed
|
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2024.143789 |
| Keywords |
Nitrogen Reduction (Score: 0.52379) , Artificial Nitrogen Fixation (Score: 0.522076) , Nanocatalysts (Score: 0.504976)
|
