Ethylene Glycol-Assisted Interfacial Engineering for Efficient Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia at Industry-Relevant Current Exceeding 2 A cm <sup>–2</sup>
Constructing synergistic heterointerfaces is recognized as an effective strategy to enhance the efficiency of electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia (NO<sub>3</sub>RR), but the limited utilization of hydrogen species still constrains overall performance. Herein, we fabricate a self-supported EG-CuO<sub><i>x</i></sub>@Ni(OH)<sub>2</sub> electrode, in which the CuO<sub><i>x</i></sub>@Ni(OH)<sub>2</sub> heterointerface induces charge redistribution, and the introduction of ethylene glycol (EG) further strengthens electronic coupling between phases, synchronously optimizing the adsorption capability of Cu sites toward NO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup> and the activation ability of Ni sites toward H<sub>2</sub>O. Notably, EG directs the oriented growth of Ni(OH)<sub>2</sub> into uniform, dense flower-like nanoclusters on CuO<sub><i>x</i></sub>, substantially increasing active site exposure and interfacial contact efficiency. Moreover, EG is beneficial to locally enriching protons, facilitating the efficient hydrogenation of key intermediates by H* species. Benefiting from these synergistic effects, EG-CuO<sub><i>x</i></sub>@Ni(OH)<sub>2</sub> exhibits outstanding NO<sub>3</sub>RR performance, achieving an ammonia half-cell energy efficiency of 39.90%, a Faradaic efficiency of 96.59%, an ammonia production rate of 202.16 mg h<sup>-1</sup>·cm<sup>-2</sup>, and a current density of 2549.24 mA·cm<sup>-2</sup>, while maintaining stable operation for 18 h.
Authors
- Dan Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3822-1418)
- Li Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1152-8962)
- Yimeng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7357-8473)
- Dianxue Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9138-7295)
- Changxu Ma
- Jiaxin Yao
- Zihang Li
- Guiling Wang
Institutions
- Harbin Engineering University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
- Published
- 2026-03-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c26328
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00