Au Nanowires Decorated Ultrathin Co O Nanosheets toward Light-Enhanced Nitrate Electroreduction.

Nitrate is a reasonable alternative instead of nitrogen for ammonia production due to the low bond energy, large water-solubility, and high chemical polarity for good absorption. Nitrate electroreduction reaction (NO RR) is an effective and green strategy for both nitrate treatment and ammonia production. As an electrochemical reaction, the NO RR requires an efficient electrocatalyst for achieving high activity and selectivity.

Oxygen-Vacancy-Rich CuO Hollow Nanocubes for Nitrate Electroreduction Reaction to Ammonia in a Neutral Electrolyte.

The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO-ERR) to ammonia (NH) is a promising strategy for NH production. Cu-based nanomaterials have been regarded as a kind of effective NO-ERR catalysts. In this work, high-quality hollow CuO nanocubes (CuO h-NCs) are facilely synthesized by a simple one-step reduction method.

Iron-Doped Cobalt Phosphide Nanohoops for Electroreduction of Nitrate to Ammonia.

Heteroatom doping can effectively tune the electronic structure of an electrocatalyst to accelerate the adsorption/desorption of reaction intermediates, which sharply increases their intrinsic electroactivity. Herein, we successfully prepare iron (Fe)-doped cobalt phosphide (CoP) nanohoops (Fe/CoP NHs) with different Fe/Co atomic ratios as highly active electrocatalysts for the nitrate electrocatalytic reduction reaction (NIT-ERR). Electrochemical measurements reveal that appropriate Fe doping can improve the electroactivity of cobalt phosphide nanohoops for the NIT-ERR.