Electronic structure modulation of Ni-decorated Cu nanowire electrode for efficient nitrate-to-ammonia conversion in neutral media.

Authors

Lingli Lv, Lingxi Xia, Haoming Wang, Xue Xia, Xia Huang

Published in

Journal of colloid and interface science. Volume 724. Issue Pt 1. Pages 141058. Jul 02, 2026. Epub Jul 02, 2026.

Abstract

Electrocatalytic nitrate-to-ammonia conversion has emerged as a pivotal green technology that simultaneously enables waste valorization and sustainable ammonia production, offering a promising alternative to the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. Herein, we reported a highly efficient Ni-decorated Cu nanowire electrode (Ni-CuNW) that exhibited remarkable electrocatalytic activity under challenging neutral media, which typically suffers from insufficient H* supply and severe competition from the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The optimized electrode achieved near complete nitrate removal with 99.5% NH₄⁺-N selectivity and 95.5% Faradaic efficiency (FE) for NH₃ production during treatment of nitrate-laden wastewater (50 mg L^-1 NO₃^--N), and maintained an NH₃ FE of 90% even in high-concentration wastewater containing 2000 mg L^-1 NO₃^--N. An integrated reactor incorporating an in-situ ammonia recovery unit was constructed, and over 95% nitrate removal and 85% NH₃ recovery were achieved under various nitrate concentrations, demonstrating its robust practical applicability. Mechanism studies revealed that the superior performance originated from the incorporation of Ni(OH)₂ species, which modulated the electronic structure of Cu and induced surface electron redistribution. This electronic structure modulation accelerated interfacial electron transfer and strengthened the adsorption of NO₃^- and nitrogen-containing intermediates. Concurrently, Ni species incorporation selectively suppressed the competing HER at active sites, thereby endowing the Ni-CuNW electrode with exceptional FE for NH₃ production. This work presents an efficient and scalable strategy for synthesizing advanced electrocatalysts suitable for both wastewater remediation and sustainable ammonia production.

PMID:
42413128
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Jul 2026.

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