Issue 45, 2022

Vanadium defect-engineering in molybdenum disulfide for electrochemical nitrate reduction

Abstract

The electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NITRR) provides a promising option for nitrate pollutant removal and ammonia production under ambient conditions, which requires electrocatalysts with high activity. Here, bio-inspired metalloenzymes MoS2 nanoflowers with defect-engineering via vanadium doping (V–MoS2) prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method are verified to show remarkable NITRR capability. The introduction of highly conductive vanadium changes the electron orbitals and the metalloenzyme-like structure of the MoS2, making the 15% V–MoS2 catalyst exhibit a high-efficiency nitrate removal rate of 95% and excellent ammonia selectivity of 89.5% at −1.1 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in 0.5 M Na2SO4 solution. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the reduced energy barrier of 0.41 eV, correlated with hydrogenation of *NO to *NOH, plays a crucial part in the enhanced nitrate removal rate and NH4+ selectivity of V–MoS2. This work opens up a new avenue for the design of bio-inspired metalloenzyme catalysts for the NITRR.

Graphical abstract: Vanadium defect-engineering in molybdenum disulfide for electrochemical nitrate reduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 aug 2022
Accepted
24 sep 2022
First published
26 sep 2022

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022,10, 23990-23997

Vanadium defect-engineering in molybdenum disulfide for electrochemical nitrate reduction

M. Yu, H. Huang, J. Hu, S. Wang, J. Li and D. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, 10, 23990 DOI: 10.1039/D2TA06346H

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