journal article·2025-04

Electrosynthesis of Urea on High‐Density Ga─Y Dual‐Atom Catalyst via Cross‐Tuning

Dechao Chen, Yimeng Cai, Yi Xiao, Chengqiang Wang, Yong Li, Ke Ma, Dongdong Xiao, Hsiao‐Tsu Wang, Chi‐Feng Lee, Linjie Zhang, Hirofumi Ishii, Yu‐Cheng Shao, Nozomu Hiraoka, Lili Han, Xueming Liu, Huolin L. Xin

Advanced Materials· Volume 37· Issue 14
Publisher page

Abstract

Abstract Electrochemically converting carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrate (NO3−) into urea via the C─N coupling route offers a sustainable alternative to the traditional industrial urea production technology, but it is still limited by poor yield rate, low Faradaic efficiency, and insufficient coupling kinetics. Herein, a high‐density Ga─Y dual‐atom catalyst is developed with loading up to 14.1 wt.% of Ga and Y supported on N, P‐co‐doped carbon substrate (Ga/Y‐CNP) for urea electrosynthesis. The catalyst facilitates efficient C─N coupling through co‐reduction of CO2 and NO3−, resulting in a high urea yield rate of 41.9 mmol h−1 g−1 and a Faradaic efficiency of 22.1% at −1.4 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. In situ spectroscopy and theoretical calculations reveal that the superior performance is attributed to the cross‐tuning between adjacent pair Ga─Y sites, which can mutually optimize their electronic states for facilitating CO2 reduction to *CO at Ga sites and promoting NO3− conversion to hydroxylamine (*NH2OH) at Y sites, followed by spontaneous coupling of *CO and *NH2OH intermediates at Ga─Y sites to form C─N bonds. This work offers a pioneering strategy to manipulate C─N coupling pathways by cross‐tuning active sites to produce high‐value‐added chemicals.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction · Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion · Catalytic Processes in Materials Science

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

Affiliations

State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter Chinese Academy of Sciences Fuzhou 350002 China

Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China Fuzhou Fujian 350108 China

Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 China

Department of Physics Tamkang University New Taipei City 251301 Taiwan

National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center Hsinchu 30076 Taiwan

School of Environment and Energy Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Wastes Pollution Control and Recycling South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510006 China

Department of Physics and Astronomy University of California Irvine CA 92617 USA

Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Chinese Academy of Sciences · Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province

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