Wu Qinyue, Fan Xinfei, Shan Bing, Qi Liang, Quan Xie, Liu Yanming
Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Apr 11;16(1):3479. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-58811-5.
Electrocatalytic NO reduction (eNO3RR) is a sustainable method for purification of NO wastewater and NH recovery. Cu-based catalysts are promising for eNO3RR, but insufficient active hydrogen (*H) supply and *NO poison of active sites have hindered their performance, and the catalytic mechanism remains ambiguous. Here, we report oxide-derived copper nanosheet arrays (OD-Cu NSs) with residual lattice oxygen and lattice strains to enhance NH synthesis from eNO3RR. It is efficient for NH synthesis with high Faradaic efficiencies of 88.7-99.7% and maximum NH yield of 6.20 mmol·h·cm at neutral solution, 10-140 mM NO and 50-1500 mA·cm. Experimental and theoretical results reveal that lattice oxygen regulates the electronic structure of OD-Cu NSs and promotes *NO conversion, while lattice strain enhances *H generation from water dissociation, resulting in the good performance for NH synthesis. The applicability of OD-Cu NSs is proved by the high recovery of ammonia compound from eNO3RR.
电催化NO还原（eNO3RR）是一种净化NO废水和回收NH的可持续方法。铜基催化剂在eNO3RR方面具有潜力，但活性氢（H）供应不足和活性位点的NO中毒阻碍了它们的性能，并且催化机制仍不明确。在此，我们报道了具有残余晶格氧和晶格应变的氧化物衍生铜纳米片阵列（OD-Cu NSs），以增强eNO3RR合成NH的能力。在中性溶液、10 - 140 mM NO和50 - 1500 mA·cm条件下，它对NH合成具有高效性，法拉第效率高达88.7 - 99.7%，最大NH产率为6.20 mmol·h·cm 。实验和理论结果表明，晶格氧调节OD-Cu NSs的电子结构并促进NO转化，而晶格应变增强了水离解产生H的能力，从而使NH合成具有良好性能。从eNO3RR中氨化合物的高回收率证明了OD-Cu NSs的适用性。
