Zhou Fengling, Sun Chenghua
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Distributed Energy Systems, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523808, China.
Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology and Centre for Translational Atomaterials, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia.
Small. 2022 May;18(21):e2200436. doi: 10.1002/smll.202200436. Epub 2022 May 1.
The fuel cell is a basic device to generate electricity from chemical fuels. It is often operated with oxygen as the oxidizing agent, but its sluggish reduction has become a key challenge. Herein, a conceptual oxygen-free design is demonstrated, namely a zinc-nitrate fuel cell, which converts nitrate waste into valuable ammonia and generates electricity simultaneously. The cell is constructed with zinc foil as the anode and ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles loaded on nickel foam as the cathode. Catalyzed by Ru/Ni hydroxide hybrid, the reaction rate of 384 mmol h mg (1.4 × 10 ± 0.1 × 10 mol s cm ) and Faradic efficiency (FE = 97% ± 2%) at -0.6 V versus reverse hydrogen electrode are achieved for nitrate-to-ammonia conversion. During ammonia production, such zinc-nitrate fuel cell can further deliver a maximum power density of 51.5 mW cm (0.25 cm electrode) and 23.3 mW cm (1 cm electrode), keeping ultrahigh Faradic efficiency (97% ± 4% at 40 mA cm ) after long tests.
燃料电池是一种利用化学燃料发电的基本装置。它通常以氧气作为氧化剂运行，但其缓慢的还原过程已成为一个关键挑战。在此，展示了一种无氧气的概念设计，即硝酸锌燃料电池，它能将硝酸盐废物转化为有价值的氨并同时发电。该电池以锌箔为阳极，负载在泡沫镍上的钌（Ru）纳米颗粒为阴极构建而成。在Ru/氢氧化镍混合物的催化下，硝酸盐到氨的转化在相对于可逆氢电极-0.6 V时实现了384 mmol h mg（1.4×10±0.1×10 mol s cm）的反应速率和97%±2%的法拉第效率（FE）。在氨生产过程中，这种硝酸锌燃料电池可进一步提供51.5 mW cm（0.25 cm电极）和2,3.3 mW cm（1 cm电极）的最大功率密度，经过长时间测试后保持超高的法拉第效率（在40 mA cm时为97%±4%）。
