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Updated: Jun 20, 2025

Electrochemically and Bioelectrochemically Induced Ammonium Recovery
Published on: January 22, 2015
Electrocatalytic Valorization of Nitrate and Polyester Plastic for Simultaneous Production of Ammonia and Glycolic
Ziqiang Wang1, Jiale Song1, Hugang Zhang1
1State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Green-Chemical Synthesis Technology, College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Electrochemical upcycling of nitrate and polyester plastic into valuable products is an ideal solution to realize the resource utilization. Here, the co-production of ammonia (NH3) and glycolic acid (GA) via electrochemical upcycling of nitrate and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics over mesoporous Pd3Au film on Ni foam (mPd3Au/NF), which is synthesized by micelle-assisted replacement method, is proposed. The mPd3Au/NF with well-developed mesoporous structure provides abundant active sites and facilitated transfer channels and strong electronic effect. As such, the mPd3Au/NF exhibits high Faraday efficiencies of 97.28% and 95.32% at 0.9 V for the formation of NH3 and GA, respectively. Theoretical results indicate that the synergistic effect of Pd and Au can optimize adsorption energy of key intermediates *NOH and *OCH2-CH2OH on active sites and increase bond energy of C─C band, thereby improving the activity and selectivity for the formation of NH3 and GA. This work proposes a promising strategy for the simultaneous conversation of nitrate and PET plastic into high-value NH3 and GA.
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