Electrochemical nitrate reduction in acid enables high-efficiency ammonia synthesis and high-voltage pollutes-based fuel cells

Rong Zhang, Chuan Li, Huilin Cui, Yanbo Wang, Shaoce Zhang, Pei Li, Yue Hou, Ying Guo (), Guojin Liang, Zhaodong Huang, Chao Peng () and Chunyi Zhi ()
Additional contact information
Rong Zhang: City University of Hong Kong
Chuan Li: City University of Hong Kong
Huilin Cui: City University of Hong Kong
Yanbo Wang: City University of Hong Kong
Shaoce Zhang: City University of Hong Kong
Pei Li: City University of Hong Kong
Yue Hou: City University of Hong Kong
Ying Guo: Shenzhen University
Guojin Liang: City University of Hong Kong
Zhaodong Huang: City University of Hong Kong
Chao Peng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chunyi Zhi: City University of Hong Kong

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Most current research is devoted to electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction for ammonia synthesis under alkaline/neutral media while the investigation of nitrate reduction under acidic conditions is rarely reported. In this work, we demonstrate the potential of TiO2 nanosheet with intrinsically poor hydrogen-evolution activity for selective and rapid nitrate reduction to ammonia under acidic conditions. Hybridized with iron phthalocyanine, the resulting catalyst displays remarkably improved efficiency toward ammonia formation owing to the enhanced nitrate adsorption, suppressed hydrogen evolution and lowered energy barrier for the rate-determining step. Then, an alkaline-acid hybrid Zn-nitrate battery was developed with high open-circuit voltage of 1.99 V and power density of 91.4 mW cm–2. Further, the environmental sulfur recovery can be powered by above hybrid battery and the hydrazine-nitrate fuel cell can be developed for simultaneously hydrazine/nitrate conversion and electricity generation. This work demonstrates the attractive potential of acidic nitrate reduction for ammonia electrosynthesis and broadens the field of energy conversion.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43897-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-43897-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43897-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().