Abstract
The electrochemical reduction of nitrite (NO2‐) and nitrate (NO3‐) not only enables sustainable, circular routes to produce ammonia (NH3), but also eliminates pollutants in groundwater. Here, we report a facile synthesis of Ru‐doped Cu nanowires on Cu foam electrodes with low Ru (0.48 wt.%) loading. The composite electrode shows high‐performance in the NO2‐/NO3‐ to NH3 electroreduction, giving NH3 Faradaic efficiencies of up to 100% and NH3 yield rates up to 33.2 mg h‐1 cm‐2 at ‐0.2 V vs. RHE in NO2‐ reduction. For the nitrate‐to‐ammonia reduction, the electrode also shows high activity with Faradaic efficiencies of 88.4 % (at ‐0.6 V vs RHE) and a yield rate of 62.5 mg h‐1 cm‐2 (at ‐1.0 V vs. RHE). We show that the electrode can easily be integrated into a Zn–nitrite battery, giving a power density of 9.1 mW cm‐2, a NH3 yield rate of 1.88 mg h‐1 cm‐2 and a nitrite‐to‐ammonia Faradaic efficiency of 88.9 % at a current density of 20 mA cm‐2. The system combines three productive outputs, that is removal of NOx‐ pollutants, synthesis of valuable NH3 and generation of “green” electricity.
Published Version
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