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Updated: Sep 3, 2025

Electrochemically and Bioelectrochemically Induced Ammonium Recovery
Published on: January 22, 2015
Electrochemical Upgrading of Formic Acid to Formamide via Coupling Nitrite Co-Reduction
Chengying Guo1, Wei Zhou1, Xianen Lan1
1Institute of Molecular Plus, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
Abstract:
Formic acid (HCOOH) can be exclusively prepared through CO2 electroreduction at an industrial current density (0.5 A cm-2). However, the global annual demand for formic acid is only ∼1 million tons, far less than the current CO2 emission scale. The exploration of an economical and green approach to upgrading CO2-derived formic acid is significant. Here, we report an electrochemical process to convert formic acid and nitrite into high-valued formamide over a copper catalyst under ambient conditions, which offers the selectivity from formic acid to formamide up to 90.0%. Isotope-labeled in situ attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy and quasi in situ electron paramagnetic resonance results reveal the key C-N bond formation through coupling *CHO and *NH2 intermediates. This work offers an electrochemical strategy to upgrade CO2-derived formic acid into high-value formamide.
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