Biomass Juncus derived carbon decorated with cobalt nanoparticles enables high-efficiency ammonia electrosynthesis by nitrite reduction†
Jie Liang,Pengyu Liu,Zhe Yan,Linxia Cui,Luchao Yue,Longcheng Zhang,Yuchun Ren,Tingshuai Li,Yonglan Luo,Qian Liu,Xian-En Zhao,Na Li,Bo Tang,Yang Liu,Shuyan Gao,Abdullah M. Asiri,Haigang Hao,Rui Gao,Xuping Sun
Journal of Materials Chemistry A Pub Date : 01/13/2022 00:00:00 , DOI:10.1039/D1TA09013E
Abstract

The electrochemical nitrite (NO2) reduction reaction (NO2RR) is not only a promising strategy to degrade the harmful NO2 contaminant in the environment but an attractive alternative to the Haber–Bosch process for sustainable ammonia (NH3) production. It is however hindered by low NO2-to-NH3 conversion efficiencies and needs superb catalysts to drive the direct six-electron NO2RR. Here, we report on developing cobalt nanoparticle decorated biomass Juncus derived carbon as a highly active NO2RR catalyst with high durability for NH3 electrosynthesis. This catalyst shows an NH3 yield of 2.8 ± 0.1 mol h−1 gCo−1 and a high faradaic efficiency of 96.9 ± 2.1% in alkaline media. The catalytic mechanism is further revealed by density functional theory calculations.

Graphical abstract: Biomass Juncus derived carbon decorated with cobalt nanoparticles enables high-efficiency ammonia electrosynthesis by nitrite reduction