Electrosynthesis of nitrate via the oxidation of nitrogen

Abstract

The electrocatalytic nitrogen oxidation reaction (NOR) provides a green approach for converting abundant N₂ and H₂O into high-value nitrates under environmental conditions. However, there are still few studies on the electrocatalytic NOR to produce nitrate. This work reports for the first time PdO_x–Co₃O₄ nanoboxes (NBs) that were synthesized by the Co–Co Prussian blue analogue (PBA) template method and used as an efficient NOR electrocatalyst. The catalyst exhibited a high NOR performance in 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ solution. At 1.7 V vs. RHE, the faradaic efficiency (FE) of PdO_x–Co₃O₄ NBs is 5.88%, and the nitrate productivity is 26.28 µg h⁻¹ mg_cat⁻¹. This work not only demonstrates for the first time the application potential of oxygen-vacancy materials in the electrocatalytic NOR, but also provides new ideas for the design of high-performance NOR catalysts.