Perspectives on the Competition between the Electrochemical Water and N Oxidation on a TiO(110) Electrode.

The electrochemical nitrogen oxidation reaction (NOR) has recently drawn attention due to promising experimental and theoretical results. It provides an alternative, environmentally friendly route to directly synthesize nitrate from N(g). There is to date a limited number of investigations focused on the electrochemical NOR.

Why do RuO electrodes catalyze electrochemical CO reduction to methanol rather than methane or perhaps neither of those?

The electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR) on RuO and RuO-based electrodes has been shown experimentally to produce high yields of methanol, formic acid and/or hydrogen while methane formation is not detected. This CORR selectivity on RuO is in stark contrast to copper metal electrodes that produce methane and hydrogen in the highest yields whereas methanol is only formed in trace amounts. Density functional theory calculations on RuO(110) where only adsorption free energies of intermediate species are considered, solvent effects and energy barriers are not included, predict however, that the overpotential and the potential limiting step for both methanol and methane are the same.