Heterogenous Cu@ZrO₂ nanofibers enable efficient electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia under ambient...

In this study, we construct a Cu@ZrO₂ heterogenous structure as a new catalyst that achieves a large NH₃ yield of 15.4 mg h^-1 mg^-1_cat. and a high faradaic efficiency of 67.6% at -0.7 V vs. RHE in 0.1 M PBS with 0.1 M NaNO₃, and it also shows excellent electrochemical durability and structural stability. Theoretical calculations reveal an extremely low adsorption energy of -1.54 eV at Cu surfaces and Cu can significantly reduce the applied overpotential and correspondingly promote the catalytic activity.