Tuning Active Hydrogen via Spillover Enables the Wide‐Potential Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrate to Ammonia
The electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO<sub>3</sub>RR) offers a sustainable route for green ammonia synthesis under ambient conditions. However, achieving high NH<sub>3</sub> selectivity across a broad potential window, which is crucial for integration with fluctuating renewable energy sources, remains challenging due to difficulties in precisely controlling the active hydrogen supply. Herein, a hydrogen spillover strategy is presented to address this challenge by optimizing hydrogen activity. This strategy is realized using a Pt nanoparticle decorated nanoporous Co<sub>2</sub>P (Pt/np-Co<sub>2</sub>P) catalyst. In situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, density functional theory calculations, and a suite of control experiments reveal that Pt nanoparticles generate active hydrogen, which migrates via the spillover pathway to hydrogenate *NO on Co<sub>2</sub>P. This process significantly lowers both thermodynamic and kinetic barriers for *NO hydrogenation. As a result, the Pt/np-Co<sub>2</sub>P catalyst maintains a Faradaic efficiency (FE) above 90% across a wide 600 mV potential window by ensuring sufficient *H availability at low overpotentials and suppressing the competing hydrogen evolution reaction at high overpotentials. The FE approaches 100% at an industrially relevant current density of ≈1 A cm<sup>-2</sup>. Similar performance enhancements observed for other noble metal-decorated np-Co<sub>2</sub>P confirm the universality of hydrogen spillover strategy for designing efficient catalysts toward practical ammonia synthesis.
Authors
- Jiewen Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5189-0443)
- Longfei Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9103-6107)
- Hui Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4577-2886)
- Zhenduo Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3114-9548)
- Yanqin Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6317-8314)
- Xue Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3675-9479)
- Aoni Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5114-8740)
- Minghao Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8317-5847)
- Hai‐Bin Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0645-0187)
- Fengwang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1531-2966)
- Wei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3698-334X)
- Zhaoyang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9418-3087)
- Shengli Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0190-2626)
- Yang Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0570-4384)
- Zhonghui Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4777-4505)
- Jialei Huang
- Wence Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5422-1958)
Institutions
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Tianjin University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-12-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202518272
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.56
Funders
- Australian Government
- University of Sydney
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Scholarship Council