High Loading and Morphology Transformation in Boron Dispersed Copper Electrocatalyst Enables Efficient Nitrate to...

Electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia provides a promising route to alleviate nitrate pollution into value-added chemicals. However, ammonia production is currently suffered low production yield due to inefficient catalyst and less loading (usually less than 11 mg cm^-2). Here, we fabricated a novel and high-performance boron nanosheet dispersed copper nanorod (BS-CuNR) electrocatalyst that displayed remarkable performance at record loading (35 mg cm^-2). The novel structure of BS-CuNR produced abundant active sites, and enhances the catalyst-electrolyte interaction that facilitates the transfer of ions and electrons at high loading. That delivered an industrial-relevant ammonia production current density (-450 mA cm^-2) and 91.9% Faraday efficiency with 43.5 mg h^-1 cm^-2 ammonia production rate at -0.4 V vs. RHE. In-situ infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory demonstrated that the higher catalytic activity of BS-CuNR originates from the intrinsic and synergistic catalytic cooperation of B and Cu. Boron incorporation modulates copper's electronic structure to enhance its catalytic activity. The high loading with high production helps to meet the requirements of practical applications.