Spontaneous oxidative reconstruction of FeS2 speeds up high-efficiency nitrate reduction

Abstract

The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (eNO₃RR) relies on multi-tasking functionality to overcome the difficulty of electron/mass transfer, but a catalyst of a single metal element could not achieve this. Spontaneous oxidative reconstruction endows a catalyst with multitasking capabilities, enhancing the performance of the eNO₃RR. The spontaneously reconstructed S–FeOOH exhibits outstanding eNO₃RR performance (FE = 93.7% and yield = 80.2% of NH₃), providing new design principles for high-performance nitrate reduction catalysts.