Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Electrochemical ammonia synthesis via nitrate reduction on Fe single atom catalyst

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [1]
  1. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
  2. Univ. of Calgary, AB (Canada)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Canadian Light Sources, Inc., Saskatoon, SK (Canada); Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK (Canada)
Electrochemically converting nitrate, a widespread water pollutant, back to valuable ammonia is a green and delocalized route for ammonia synthesis, and can be an appealing and supplementary alternative to the Haber-Bosch process. However, as there are other nitrate reduction pathways present, selectively guiding the reaction pathway towards ammonia is currently challenged by the lack of efficient catalysts. Here we report a selective and active nitrate reduction to ammonia on Fe single atom catalyst, with a maximal ammonia Faradaic efficiency of ~ 75% and a yield rate of up to ~ 20,000 μg h–1 mgcat.–1 (0.46 mmol h–1 cm–2). Our Fe single atom catalyst can effectively prevent the N-N coupling step required for N2 due to the lack of neighboring metal sites, promoting ammonia product selectivity. Density functional theory calculations reveal the reaction mechanisms and the potential limiting steps for nitrate reduction on atomically dispersed Fe sites.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); Welch Foundation
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1787929
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (72)

Amorphizing of Au Nanoparticles by CeO x -RGO Hybrid Support towards Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for N 2 Reduction under Ambient Conditions journal July 2017
Achieving a Record-High Yield Rate of 120.9 μgNH3  mgcat.−1  h−1 for N 2 Electrochemical Reduction over Ru Single-Atom Catalysts journal August 2018
A Review of Electrocatalytic Reduction of Dinitrogen to Ammonia under Ambient Conditions journal May 2018
Elucidation of Pathways for NO Electroreduction on Pt(111) from First Principles journal June 2015
Atomically Dispersed Iron-Nitrogen Species as Electrocatalysts for Bifunctional Oxygen Evolution and Reduction Reactions journal December 2016
An Amorphous Noble-Metal-Free Electrocatalyst that Enables Nitrogen Fixation under Ambient Conditions journal March 2018
From Metal-Organic Frameworks to Single-Atom Fe Implanted N-doped Porous Carbons: Efficient Oxygen Reduction in Both Alkaline and Acidic Media journal June 2018
Unveiling the Activity Origin of a Copper‐based Electrocatalyst for Selective Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia journal March 2020
Restoring the Nitrogen Cycle by Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrate: Progress and Prospects journal September 2020
High-performance oxygen reduction and evolution carbon catalysis: From mechanistic studies to device integration journal November 2016
Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate and nitrite to hydroxylamine and ammonia using metal cyclams journal June 1987
Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate at low concentration on coinage and transition-metal electrodes in acid solutions journal September 2003
The electrochemical reduction of nitrate over micro-architectured metal electrodes with stainless steel scaffold journal January 2016
State-of-the-art and perspectives of the catalytic and electrocatalytic reduction of aqueous nitrates journal June 2017
Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate: Fundamentals to full-scale water treatment applications journal November 2018
Non-precious Co3O4-TiO2/Ti cathode based electrocatalytic nitrate reduction: Preparation, performance and mechanism journal October 2019
Electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis: Role of cathode materials and reactor configuration journal September 2009
Efficient electrochemical reduction of nitrate to nitrogen on tin cathode at very high cathodic potentials journal November 2006
Study of the electroreduction of nitrate on copper in alkaline solution journal August 2008
In situ growth of copper/reduced graphene oxide on graphite surfaces for the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate journal November 2019
Electrochemical reduction of nitrate on bismuth cathodes journal May 2009
Electrochemical reduction of nitrate and nitrite in simulated liquid nuclear wastes journal November 2009
Heterogeneous electrocatalysts design for nitrogen reduction reaction under ambient conditions journal July 2019
Metal Catalysts for Heterogeneous Catalysis: From Single Atoms to Nanoclusters and Nanoparticles journal April 2018
Well-Defined Materials for Heterogeneous Catalysis: From Nanoparticles to Isolated Single-Atom Sites journal December 2019
Tailoring the Assembly of Iron Nanoparticles in Carbon Microspheres toward High-Performance Electrocatalytic Denitrification journal July 2019
Atomistic Insights into Nitrogen-Cycle Electrochemistry: A Combined DFT and Kinetic Monte Carlo Analysis of NO Electrochemical Reduction on Pt(100) journal May 2017
Structure- and Coverage-Sensitive Mechanism of NO Reduction on Platinum Electrodes journal June 2017
Insights into Nitrate Reduction over Indium-Decorated Palladium Nanoparticle Catalysts journal December 2017
Activity and Selectivity Trends in Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction on Transition Metals journal June 2019
Boosting Selective Nitrate Electroreduction to Ammonium by Constructing Oxygen Vacancies in TiO 2 journal February 2020
Single-Atom Catalysts: A New Frontier in Heterogeneous Catalysis journal April 2013
Nitrogen Cycle Electrocatalysis journal June 2009
Nitrite Reduction Mechanism on a Pd Surface journal October 2014
Nitrate Adsorption and Reduction on Cu(100) in Acidic Solution journal August 2007
Efficient Ammonia Electrosynthesis from Nitrate on Strained Ruthenium Nanoclusters journal March 2020
Ammonia Electrosynthesis with High Selectivity under Ambient Conditions via a Li + Incorporation Strategy journal July 2017
Metal (Hydr)oxides@Polymer Core–Shell Strategy to Metal Single-Atom Materials journal August 2017
Enhanced Nitrate-to-Ammonia Activity on Copper–Nickel Alloys via Tuning of Intermediate Adsorption journal March 2020
Metallophthalocyanine catalysed electroreduction of nitrate and nitrite ions in alkaline media journal January 1997
Ammonia synthesis using a stable electride as an electron donor and reversible hydrogen store journal October 2012
Molecular metal–Nx centres in porous carbon for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution journal August 2015
Photo-illuminated diamond as a solid-state source of solvated electrons in water for nitrogen reduction journal June 2013
Ambient ammonia synthesis via palladium-catalyzed electrohydrogenation of dinitrogen at low overpotential journal May 2018
Atomically dispersed nickel–nitrogen–sulfur species anchored on porous carbon nanosheets for efficient water oxidation journal March 2019
Continuous production of pure liquid fuel solutions via electrocatalytic CO2 reduction using solid-electrolyte devices journal September 2019
Electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonia via direct eight-electron transfer using a copper–molecular solid catalyst journal July 2020
Heterogeneous single-atom catalysis journal May 2018
Molybdenum-catalysed ammonia production with samarium diiodide and alcohols or water journal April 2019
A rigorous electrochemical ammonia synthesis protocol with quantitative isotope measurements journal May 2019
Catalysts for nitrogen reduction to ammonia journal July 2018
Atomically dispersed manganese catalysts for oxygen reduction in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells journal October 2018
Challenges and prospects in the catalysis of electroreduction of nitrogen to ammonia journal March 2019
Electrochemical synthesis of ammonia as a potential alternative to the Haber–Bosch process journal May 2019
Rational design of electrocatalysts and photo(electro)catalysts for nitrogen reduction to ammonia (NH 3 ) under ambient conditions journal January 2018
Achieving high-performance nitrate electrocatalysis with PdCu nanoparticles confined in nitrogen-doped carbon coralline journal January 2018
A flexible, redox-active macrocycle enables the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate to ammonia by a cobalt complex journal January 2018
How to explore ambient electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reliably and insightfully journal January 2019
Theoretical design and experimental implementation of Ag/Au electrodes for the electrochemical reduction of nitrate journal January 2013
Assessment of the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof exchange-correlation functional journal March 1999
Interfacial engineering of cobalt sulfide/graphene hybrids for highly efficient ammonia electrosynthesis journal March 2019
QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials journal September 2009
Ultrasoft pseudopotentials and projector augmented-wave data sets: application to diatomic molecules journal October 2011
Electrochemical synthesis of nitric acid from air and ammonia through waste utilization journal February 2019
An object-oriented scripting interface to a legacy electronic structure code journal January 2002
A physical catalyst for the electrolysis of nitrogen to ammonia journal April 2018
Transition metal–assisted carbonization of small organic molecules toward functional carbon materials journal July 2018
Catalyst-free, highly selective synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and water by a plasma electrolytic system journal January 2019
Ammonia Synthesis from First-Principles Calculations journal January 2005
New recipe produces ammonia from air, water, and sunlight journal August 2014
Direct atomic-level insight into the active sites of a high-performance PGM-free ORR catalyst journal August 2017
Direct electrosynthesis of pure aqueous H 2 O 2 solutions up to 20% by weight using a solid electrolyte journal October 2019

Similar Records

Electrolyte Engineering for Efficient Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia on a Titanium Electrode
Journal Article · Thu Feb 06 19:00:00 EST 2020 · ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · OSTI ID:1608699

Disordered Au Nanoclusters for Efficient Ammonia Electrosynthesis
Journal Article · Tue Feb 07 19:00:00 EST 2023 · ChemSusChem · OSTI ID:1963189

Copper Single Atoms Anchored in Porous Nitrogen-Doped Carbon as Efficient pH-Universal Catalysts for the Nitrogen Reduction Reaction
Journal Article · Sun Oct 13 20:00:00 EDT 2019 · ACS Catalysis · OSTI ID:1570669