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Updated: Jul 21, 2025

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Elucidating electrochemical nitrate and nitrite reduction over atomically-dispersed transition metal sites
Eamonn Murphy1, Yuanchao Liu1, Ivana Matanovic2,3
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
Abstract:
Electrocatalytic reduction of waste nitrates (NO3-) enables the synthesis of ammonia (NH3) in a carbon neutral and decentralized manner. Atomically dispersed metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) catalysts demonstrate a high catalytic activity and uniquely favor mono-nitrogen products. However, the reaction fundamentals remain largely underexplored. Herein, we report a set of 14; 3d-, 4d-, 5d- and f-block M-N-C catalysts. The selectivity and activity of NO3- reduction to NH3 in neutral media, with a specific focus on deciphering the role of the NO2- intermediate in the reaction cascade, reveals strong correlations (R=0.9) between the NO2- reduction activity and NO3- reduction selectivity for NH3. Moreover, theoretical computations reveal the associative/dissociative adsorption pathways for NO2- evolution, over the normal M-N4 sites and their oxo-form (O-M-N4) for oxyphilic metals. This work provides a platform for designing multi-element NO3RR cascades with single-atom sites or their hybridization with extended catalytic surfaces.
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