Abstract

The electrocatalytic conversion of nitrate (NO3 ‾) to NH3 (NO3 RR) offers a promising alternative to the Haber-Bosch process. However, the overall kinetic rate of NO3 RR is plagued by the complex proton-assisted multiple-electron transfer process. Herein, Ag/Co3 O4 /CoOOH nanowires (i-Ag/Co3 O4 NWs) tandem catalyst is designed to optimize the kinetic rate of intermediate reaction for NO3 RR simultaneously. The authors proved that NO3 ‾ ions are reduced to NO2 ‾ preferentially on Ag phases and then NO2 ‾ to NO on Co3 O4 phases. The CoOOH phases catalyze NO reduction to NH3 via NH2 OH intermediate. This unique catalyst efficiently converts NO3 ‾ to NH3 through a triple reaction with a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 94.3% and a high NH3 yield rate of 253.7 μmol h-1 cm-2 in 1 M KOH and 0.1 M KNO3 solution at -0.25 V versus RHE. The kinetic studies demonstrate that converting NH2 OH into NH3 is the rate-determining step (RDS) with an energy barrier of 0.151 eV over i-Ag/Co3 O4 NWs. Further applying i-Ag/Co3 O4 NWs as the cathode material, a novel Zn-nitrate battery exhibits a power density of 2.56 mW cm-2 and an FE of 91.4% for NH3 production.

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