journal article·2025

Efficient co-production of ammonia and formic acid from nitrate and polyester via paired electrolysis

Mengmeng Du, Tao Sun, Xuyun Guo, Mingzhu Han, Yu Zhang, Wenxuan Chen, Mengxiang Han, Jizhe Ma, Wenfang Yuan, Chunyu Zhou, Valeria Nicolosi, Jian Shang, Ning Zhang, Bocheng Qiu

Materials Horizons· Volume 12· Issue 11
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Abstract

Paired electrolysis, which integrates a productive cathodic reaction, such as the nitrate reduction reaction (NO3-RR) with selective oxidation at the anode, offers an intriguing way to maximize both atomic and energy efficiency. However, in a conventional design, the NO3-RR is often coupled with the anodic oxygen evolution reaction, leading to substantial energy consumption while yielding low-value oxygen. Here, we report a hybrid electrolysis system that combines cathodic reduction of nitrate to ammonia and anodic oxidation of polyethylene-terephthalate-derived ethylene glycol (EG) to formic acid (FA), utilizing oxygen-vacancy-rich (OV) Co3O4 and Cu doped Ni(OH)2 as the cathode and anode, respectively. Remarkably, this paired electrolysis system demonstrates a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 92% for cathodic ammonia production and a FE of 99% for anodic FA production, while reducing the cell voltage by 0.54 V compared to the conventional NO3-RR system at the same current density of 100 mA cm-2. Experimental investigations combined with theoretical calculations reveal that the OV introduction effectively addresses the insufficient NO3- adsorption and hydrogenation on bare Co3O4. Additionally, Cu incorporation increases the Ni-O covalency, resulting in an improved EG adsorption ability. This work presents a promising way for waste management via paired electrolysis.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction · Caching and Content Delivery · Catalytic Processes in Materials Science

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Pesticide Sciences, Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

Department of Radiology, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400037, China

School of Chemistry, Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) and Advanced Materials Bio-Engineering Research Centre (AMBER), Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, D02PN40, Ireland

College of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing, 211167, China

Low-Dimensional Energy Materials Research Center, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China

Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

Sustainable Energy and Environmental Materials Innovation Center, Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou, 215123, China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities · Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality · Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province

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