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Communication

Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted 3D pinewood-derived carbon: A highly selective electrocatalyst for ammonia production via nitrate reduction

Xuwei Liu1, Chaozhen Liu2, Xun He1, Zhengwei Cai3, Kai Dong3, Jun Li1, Xiaoya Fan1, Ting Xie1, Xiya Yang1, Yonglan Luo1, Dongdong Zheng3, Shengjun Sun3, Sulaiman Alfaifi4, Feng Gong2( ), Xuping Sun1,3 ( )
Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China
Chemistry Department, Frontier of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
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Graphical Abstract

Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted three-dimensional (3D) pinewood-derived carbon (PC) (Fe-Co3O4/PC) facilitates the ambient electrosynthesis of NH3 via NO3− reduction, achieving a high Faradic efficiency of 96.5% at −0.5 V and a large NH3 yield of 1.2 mmol·h–1·cm–2 at −0.9 V in 0.1 M NaOH with 0.1 M NO3−.

Abstract

Nitrate (NO3−), a nitrogen-containing pollutant, is prevalent in aqueous solutions, contributing to a range of environmental and health-related issues. The electrocatalytic reduction of NO3− holds promise as a sustainable approach to both eliminating NO3− and generating valuable ammonia (NH3). Nevertheless, the reduction reaction of NO3− (NO3−RR), involving 8-electron transfer process, is intricate, necessitating highly efficient electrocatalysts to facilitate the conversion of NO3− to NH3. In this study, Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted three-dimensional (3D) pinewood-derived carbon (Fe-Co3O4/PC) is proposed as a high-efficiency NO3−RR electrocatalyst for NH3 production. Operating within 0.1 M NaOH containing NO3−, Fe-Co3O4/PC demonstrates exceptional performance, obtain an impressively large NH3 yield of 0.55 mmol·h−1·cm−2 and an exceptionally high Faradaic efficiency of 96.5% at −0.5 V, superior to its Co3O4/PC counterpart (0.2 mmol·h−1·cm−2, 73.3%). Furthermore, the study delves into the reaction mechanism of Fe-Co3O4 for NO3−RR through theoretical calculations.

Keywords

Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowirepinewood-derived carbonelectrocatalytic NO3− reductionNH3 synthesisdensity functional theory

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Nano Research
Volume 17 Issue 4,
April 2024
Pages 2276-2282
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-023-6204-y
Cite this article:
Liu X, Liu C, He X, et al. Fe-doped Co3O4 nanowire strutted 3D pinewood-derived carbon: A highly selective electrocatalyst for ammonia production via nitrate reduction. Nano Research, 2024, 17(4): 2276-2282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6204-y
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Electrocatalysis

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Received: 25 August 2023
Revised: 14 September 2023
Accepted: 14 September 2023
Published: 23 October 2023
© Tsinghua University Press 2023
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