Selective urea electrosynthesis <i>via</i> nitrate and CO<sub>2</sub> reduction on uncoordinated Zn nanosheets
Electroreduction of NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup> and CO<sub>2</sub> to urea (ENCU) represents a fascinating strategy to enable waste NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup>/CO<sub>2</sub> removal and sustainable urea production. Herein, uncoordinated Zn nanosheets (U-Zn) are developed as a highly selective ENCU catalyst, exhibiting the highest urea-faradaic efficiency of 31.8% with the corresponding urea yield rate of 39.3 mmol h<sup>-1</sup> g<sup>-1</sup> in a flow cell. Theoretical calculations and electrochemical spectroscopic measurements reveal that the high ENCU performance of U-Zn arises from the critical role of uncoordinated Zn sites that can promote both key steps of *NO<sub>2</sub>/CO<sub>2</sub> coupling and *CO<sub>2</sub>NH<sub>2</sub> protonation to *COOHNH<sub>2</sub>, while retarding the competitive side reactions.
Authors
- Xiaomiao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8450-4913)
- Wenhuan Qu
- Xiangdong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4044-2888)
- Fengyu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8504-0770)
- Jingxuan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0380-6352)
- Haixin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1025-1191)
- Ke Chu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7524-7935)
Institutions
- Hebei North University (CN)
- Lanzhou Jiaotong University (CN)
- Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Chemical Communications
- Published
- 2024-11-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d4cc05599c
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.75