Active Hydrogen Enrichment on Cu <sub>6</sub> Sn <sub>5</sub> ‐type High Entropy Intermetallics for Efficient Nitrate Reduction Reaction
Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO<sub>3</sub>RR) provides a feasible strategy for green ammonia production and the treatment of nitrate pollution in wastewater. The generation of active hydrogen (H*) plays an important role in improving the selectivity, yield rate, and Faradaic efficiency of ammonia products. Here, structurally ordered nanoporous Cu<sub>6</sub>Sn<sub>5</sub>-type high entropy intermetallics (HEI) with extremely superior performance toward NO<sub>3</sub>RR is demonstrated. The optimal nanoporous (Cu<sub>0.25</sub>Ni<sub>0.25</sub>Fe<sub>0.25</sub>Co<sub>0.25</sub>)<sub>6</sub>Sn<sub>5</sub> HEI delivers a high NH<sub>3</sub> Faradaic efficiency of 97.09 ± 1.15% and excellent stability of 120 h at the industrial level current density of 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup>, accordingly directly converting NO<sub>3</sub> <sup>‒</sup> to high-purity (NH<sub>4</sub>)<sub>2</sub>HPO<sub>4</sub> with near-unity efficiency. Theoretical calculations combined with experimental results reveal that the ordered multi-site nature of the nanoporous HEI can simultaneously promote water dissociation, reduce the reaction-free energy of the hydrogenation process, and suppress hydrogen evolution. This work provides the design of the precious-metal-free HEI for sustainable NH<sub>3</sub> synthesis and paves insights into the H* enrichment mechanism.
Authors
- Shanqiang Gao
- Jilong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8827-801X)
- Ming Peng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8557-1202)
- Linghu Meng
- Yongwen Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1486-4048)
- Ying‐Rui Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6002-5627)
- Ziwei Xiang
- Min Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4731-0255)
- Feng Xie
- Lan Jin
Institutions
- Hunan University (CN)
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (TW)
- Shanghai Technical Institute of Electronics & Information (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-05-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202501886
- Citations
- 39
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 15.17
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province