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Updated: Sep 14, 2025

Electrochemically and Bioelectrochemically Induced Ammonium Recovery
Published on: January 22, 2015
Pulsed Electrocatalysis Driven Efficient Ammonia Synthesis by Facilitating *NOOH Formation and Balancing *H Supply
Zeyu Li1, Zichen Shi1, Yinggang Ou1
1MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, State Key Laboratory of Space Power-Sources, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, P.R. China.
None:
Electrochemical nitrate reduction emerges as a promising approach for ammonia generation; however, its efficiency is hindered by the sluggish hydrogenation of nitrogen-containing intermediates and limited active hydrogen supply at constant applied potentials. Driven by the pulsed electrocatalysis, in this work, efficient nitrate-to-ammonia conversion is realized by facilitating *NOOH formation and balancing *H supply on a Janus Cu@Co/NC electrocatalyst. In detail, the Cu sites could activate NO3 - at low overpotentials, while the Co sites could facilitate *NOOH formation with sufficient *H provided by the Co sites at high overpotentials. Promoted by the pulsed electrocatalysis technique, a maximum Faradaic efficiency of 98.32% with NH3 yield rate of 12.75 mg h-1 mgcat -1 is attained, and the scaled-up pulsed electrosynthesis at industrial current densities is also achieved. This work underlines the feasibility of pulsed electrolysis for regulating intermediate hydrogenation, offering a promising approach for the synthesis of ammonia or other important chemicals.
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