Recently, the team led by Associate Prof. Wang Yanqin and Prof. Wang Lei from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at our university has made new progress in the field of electrocatalytic nitrate reduction for ammonia synthesis. They have published a research result titled "Hydration-effect Boosted Active Hydrogen Facilitates Neutral Ammonia Electrosynthesis from Nitrate Reduction" in the top tier journal Advanced Functional Materials (IF: 18.5) in the materials field. (Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202413070. Associate Prof. Wang Yanqin, Prof. Wang Lei, and Researcher Chen Junxiang (from Fujian Institute of Material Structure) are co-corresponding authors of the paper. Inner Mongolia University is the first unit to complete the paper.
The article proposes a strategy to enhance active hydrogen (H*) through hydration effect, significantly promoting the electrocatalytic synthesis of nitrate reduced ammonia under neutral conditions. The research team optimized the electronic density of states of Cu-based catalysts by introducing Al element with hydration effect, significantly improving the efficiency of H* generation in neutral media. Meanwhile, the rapid charge transfer at the CuO/CuAlO2 interface effectively accelerates the kinetic process of the catalytic reaction and the diffusion of H*. More importantly, the introduction of Al weakened the excessive adsorption of CuO on reaction intermediates, thereby accelerating the hydrogenation process and suppressing the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The catalyst exhibits excellent Faraday efficiency in ammonia synthesis under neutral conditions (97.81±1.94%) and high ammonia yield (10.21±0.64 mg h-1 cm-2). This study provides important theoretical guidance and reference for designing efficient NO3RR electrocatalysts under neutral pH conditions.
This achievement has been supported by projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region "Youth Science and Technology Talent Development Project for Higher Education Institutions", and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Natural Science Foundation.
