Authors
Xueren Tan, Yang Cai, Rong Du, Chenghong Hu, Yuwei Wang, Liyang Chen, Hafiz Muhammad Adeel Sharif, Xuelei Yan, Changping Li
Published in
Journal of colloid and interface science. Volume 724. Issue Pt 3. Pages 141226. Jul 30, 2026. Epub Jul 30, 2026.
Abstract
Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) provides an attractive approach for nitrate pollutant removal and value-added NH3 generation. Cu-based single-atom catalysts (SACs) have drawn great attention in NO3RR by virtue of the inherent activity and the advantages of SACs. However, the monometallic active site and insufficient coordination environment design considerably limit the catalytic selectivity and efficiency. Here, a Fe/Cu bimetallic catalyst with coordination desymmetrization of metal atoms on O, S co-doped carbon nanotube (Fe/Cu-SOCNT) is meticulously engineered. Fe/Cu-SOCNT exhibits excellent NO3RR performance as compared to monometallic Cu and Fe catalysts with a high NH3 Faradaic efficiency of 93.2% ± 2.1% at -0.9 V vs RHE and an NH3 yield rate of 32.9 ± 1.5 mg h-1 mg-1 at -1.1 V vs RHE. Cu sites in this catalyst favor the transformation from NO3- to NO2-, whereas Fe sites enable the NO2- adsorption and promote water dissociation for *H production. Meanwhile, the coordination desymmetrization of Fe/Cu-S1O3 sites further enhances the NO3- adsorption onto the electrocatalyst surface and reduces the activation energy associated with the rate-determining step. Moreover, the Zn-NO3- battery fabricated with Fe/Cu-SOCNT offers 6.6 mW cm-2 power output. This work inspires a new approach coupling enhanced catalysis by designing bimetallic active sites and regulating coordination environment.
PMID:
42546386
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 04 Aug 2026.
Read full publication at:
Please sign in
to see all details.
Advertisement
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 5
- Comments 0