Hard Lewis Acid Mo 6+ Orchestrates N‐End Urea Adsorption to Steer Highly Selective Nitrite Electrosynthesis

ABSTRACT Electrocatalytic urea oxidation reaction (UOR) offers a promising route for coupling wastewater remediation with nitrogen upgrading. However, the structural complexity of urea, containing both electron‐donating (─NH 2 ) and electron‐withdrawing (C = O) groups, leads to multiple adsorption configurations, resulting in poorly defined pathways and low selectivity toward nitrite (NO 2 ‾ ). Here, guided by Pearson's hard‐soft acid‐base theory, we develop a hard Lewis acid strategy by incorporating Mo 6+ into NiCo layered double hydroxide (NiCoMo‐LDH) to regulate interfacial electronic structure. The strong electron‐accepting nature of Mo 6+ regulates the electronic environment of Ni/Co centers, facilitating the formation and stabilization of high‐valent NiOOH/CoOOH species while creating polarized interfacial sites with enhanced affinity toward urea activation. Importantly, Mo‐induced modulation does not merely increase oxidative capability; instead, it introduces substrate‐specific adsorption regulation that favors UOR over the competing OER. This configuration regulation facilitates selective C‐N bond cleavage of the *NCONH 2 intermediate and subsequent oxidation of the generated nitrogen species toward NO 2 ‾ , achieving a Faradaic efficiency of 93.4% and a production rate of 1732.7 µmol h −1 cm −2 . This work establishes Lewis acid modulation as a strategy for controlling adsorption configurations and steering selective electrosynthesis.

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Journal
Angewandte Chemie
Published
2026-09-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.7739547
Primary Topic
Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
Type
article
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Hard Lewis Acid Mo 6+ Orchestrates N‐End Urea Adsorption to Steer Highly Selective Nitrite Electrosynthesis

Jianying Huang, Yuekun Lai, Yingzhen Zhang, Weilong Cai et al.
Angewandte Chemie
Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
article

Hard Lewis Acid Mo 6+ Orchestrates N‐End Urea Adsorption to Steer Highly Selective Nitrite Electrosynthesis

Jianying Huang, Yuekun Lai, Yingzhen Zhang, Weilong Cai, Haili Wang, Zhangzheng Huang
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Electrocatalytic urea oxidation reaction (UOR) offers a promising route for coupling wastewater remediation with nitrogen upgrading. However, the structural complexity of urea, containing both electron‐donating (─NH 2 ) and electron‐withdrawing (C = O) groups, leads to multiple adsorption configurations, resulting in poorly defined pathways and low selectivity toward nitrite (NO 2 ‾ ). Here, guided by Pearson's hard‐soft acid‐base theory, we develop a hard Lewis acid strategy by incorporating Mo 6+ into NiCo layered double hydroxide (NiCoMo‐LDH) to regulate interfacial electronic structure. The strong electron‐accepting nature of Mo 6+ regulates the electronic environment of Ni/Co centers, facilitating the formation and stabilization of high‐valent NiOOH/CoOOH species while creating polarized interfacial sites with enhanced affinity toward urea activation. Importantly, Mo‐induced modulation does not merely increase oxidative capability; instead, it introduces substrate‐specific adsorption regulation that favors UOR over the competing OER. This configuration regulation facilitates selective C‐N bond cleavage of the *NCONH 2 intermediate and subsequent oxidation of the generated nitrogen species toward NO 2 ‾ , achieving a Faradaic efficiency of 93.4% and a production rate of 1732.7 µmol h −1 cm −2 . This work establishes Lewis acid modulation as a strategy for controlling adsorption configurations and steering selective electrosynthesis.

Angewandte Chemie
Quanzhou Normal University (CN), Fuzhou University (CN)
Clean water and sanitation
Openalex Percentile: Top 30%
Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
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