High-performance electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia enabled by a copper-porphyrin-based porous aromatic framework

Abstract

Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction (NO3RR) offers a sustainable solution for simultaneous pollutant removal and ammonia (NH3) synthesis. This study reports a copper-porphyrin-based porous aromatic framework (CuTCPP-PAF) that significantly enhances NO3RR performance compared to its molecular counterpart. The porous structure facilitates fast mass transfer and maximizes active site exposure, achieving a Faradaic efficiency of 98.6% and an NH3 production rate of 3.6 mg h-1 cm-2.