Atomically Ordered RuGa Intermetallic Electrocatalyst Enables High‐Efficiency Nitrate‐to‐Ammonia Conversion
Abstract Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction represents a green and sustainable route for ammonia synthesis. However, its practical application is still hindered by unsatisfactory selectivity, activity, energy efficiency, and stability, especially under low nitrate concentrations. Here a carbon‐supported atomically ordered ruthenium‐gallium intermetallic compound (RuGa IMC/C) is reported, characterized by orderly isolated Ru sites surrounded by catalytically inert Ga, which can serve as a highly efficient cathodic catalyst for nitrate‐to‐ammonia reduction, achieving a remarkable ammonia yield rate of 31.73 mg h −1 mg Ru −1 and an ammonia Faradaic efficiency of 97.03% as well as half‐cell energy efficiency of 40.94% at an ultralow potential of −0.05 V under a low nitrate concentration of 2000 ppm (0.032 M). Impressively, the RuGa IMC/C catalyst exhibits excellent Faradaic efficiencies (>90%) across a wide range of nitrate concentrations from 0.01 to 0.1 M at 0 V and a superior stability. Theoretical calculations reveal that incorporating Ga into Ru causes a shift of the d ‐band toward the Fermi level, optimizing the adsorption and activation of N‐containing intermediates while suppressing the competing hydrogen evolution reaction on the RuGa IMC/C. Furthermore, the assembled zinc–nitrate battery displays a maximum power density of 52.74 mW cm −2 and a long‐term durability of over 300 h.
Authors
- Kun‐Ze Xue
- Bo Da (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0785-8662)
- Jie Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4506-9701)
- Yongzhi Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1430-7487)
- Xiaozhi Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8658-4056)
- Qiuling Jiang
- Yufeng Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8090-4517)
- Wang Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6925-9067)
- Zhenyu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9198-003X)
- Hao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7577-1366)
- Yunxia Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1701-6503)
- Shiqi Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5176-9926)
- Haiyan Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1253-5147)
- Yu Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3998-4858)
- Tingting Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0012-4156)
Institutions
- Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute (CN)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Wenzhou University (CN)
- Tohoku University (JP)
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Advanced Institute of Materials Science (JP)
- Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2025-11-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202524120
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00