Electrocatalytic Valorization of Nitrate and Polyester Plastic for Simultaneous Production of Ammonia and Glycolic Acid.

Electrochemical upcycling of nitrate and polyester plastic into valuable products is an ideal solution to realize the resource utilization. Here, the co-production of ammonia (NH) and glycolic acid (GA) via electrochemical upcycling of nitrate and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics over mesoporous PdAu film on Ni foam (mPdAu/NF), which is synthesized by micelle-assisted replacement method, is proposed. The mPdAu/NF with well-developed mesoporous structure provides abundant active sites and facilitated transfer channels and strong electronic effect. As such, the mPdAu/NF exhibits high Faraday efficiencies of 97.28% and 95.32% at 0.9 V for the formation of NH and GA, respectively. Theoretical results indicate that the synergistic effect of Pd and Au can optimize adsorption energy of key intermediates *NOH and *OCH-CHOH on active sites and increase bond energy of C─C band, thereby improving the activity and selectivity for the formation of NH and GA. This work proposes a promising strategy for the simultaneous conversation of nitrate and PET plastic into high-value NH and GA.