Utilisation of carbon dioxide and nitrate for urea electrosynthesis with a Cu-based metal-organic framework

It is important and challenging to utilise CO₂ and NO₃^- as a feedstock for electrosynthesis of urea. Herein, we reported a stable 2D metal-organic framework (MOF) Cu-HATNA, possessing planar CuO₄ active sites, as an efficient electrocatalyst for coupling CO₂ and NO₃^- into urea, achieving a high yield rate of 1.46 g h^-1 g_cat^-1 with a current density of 44.2 mA cm^-1 at -0.6 V vs. RHE. This performance surpasses most of the previously reported catalysts, revealing the great prospects of MOFs in sustainable urea synthesis.