Proton Flux Engineering via Built‐in Electric Fields in N‐doped CuO@Co <sub>3</sub> O <sub>4</sub> @Ni(OH) <sub>2</sub> Heterostructure for Rechargeable Zn‐NO <sub>3</sub> <sup>−</sup> /5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural Multielectron Transfer Systems
Electrocatalytic coupling of nitrate reduction (NO<sub>3</sub>RR) to ammonia with 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) oxidation to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) enables simultaneous wastewater remediation and biomass valorization. However, developing efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for these multiproton-coupled electron transfer reactions remains challenging as conventional single-active-site catalysts inherently suffer from linear scaling relationships between intermediates and adsorption energies, particularly sluggish proton transfer. To address this, we engineered a triphasic N-doped CuO@Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>@Ni(OH)<sub>2</sub> heterostructure with a gradient built-in electric field (BIEF), which synergistically enhances interfacial charge polarization and accelerates proton transport through dynamic coupling effects in both reactions: sufficient *H supply for NO<sub>3</sub>RR and fast Ni(OH)<sub>2</sub>/NiOOH redox cycling during HMF oxidation (HMFOR), thus achieving unprecedented bifunctional performance: at - 0.4 V versus RHE, Faradaic efficiency (FE) for NH<sub>3</sub> reaches 96.49% with a yield rate of 45.36 mg h<sup>-1</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>; under 1.53 V versus RHE, the FDCA FE achieves 95.23% with a yield of 95.24%. The bifunctional design reduces energy consumption by 31.39% at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> in a NO<sub>3</sub>RR||HMFOR flow electrolyzer compared to traditional electrolytic water splitting. A rechargeable Zn-NO<sub>3</sub> <sup>-</sup>/HMF battery shows 70-280 mV lower charging potential with exceptional cycling stability (>450 cycles). This work provides a new design paradigm for bifunctional electrocatalysts in sustainable energy conversion and waste valorization.
Authors
- Fan Bai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4732-1616)
- Zifang Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6786-942X)
- Ximin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8376-6882)
- Wenbiao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4944-764X)
- Yong Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6327-3602)
- Kaibin Chu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0439-1800)
- Jingjing Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2913-6596)
- Xiangya Xu
- Jun‐Ling Song
- Meiqing Cai
Institutions
- Jiangnan University (CN)
- Linyi University (CN)
- Beijing Chemical Industry Research Institute (China) (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-09-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202514438
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.78
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province