Proceedings of International Conference on Electrocatalysis for Energy Applications and Sustainable Chemicals (EcoCat)
Publication date: 6th November 2020
The nitrogen cycle (N- cycle) is a widely studied topic in the field of catalysis and electrocatalysis.1Nitrogen, aside from its importance for our biological and environmental processes, is also a valuable and highly used element in agriculture and many industrial processes. Unfortunately, the extensive use of fertilizers and the amount of industrial waste leads to a high nitrate (NO3-) concentration in water. This high concentration of NO3- contaminant in water, apart from destabilizing the N- cycle, is connected to many human health problems. According to the World Health Organization, the maximum allowed concentration of NO3- in drinking water is 50mg/l and 3mg/l of NO2-.2 Therefore, we require technologies that can remove the over-the-limit concentration of NOy from water. Moreover, Haber-Bosch is the main industrial method of producing NH3and a major contributor of CO2 emissions, therefore the development of new technologies and catalysts that can successfully form NH3 is pivotal.
In this work we target the electrocatalytic synthesis of NH3 from the reduction of NO3. Out of the noble metals studied for the nitrogen oxides reduction reaction (NOyRR) the activity of Rh was found to be the highest towards the NH3 formation. Additionally, earlier research with coinage metals found only Cu to be active in the NOyRR to NH3.3,4 Even though monometallic catalysts promote the formation of specific products; bimetallic or alloys allow the local modification of the surface properties and inherently changes the electroactive species. 5,6 Thus, to reduce the amount of noble metals used, accelerating the rate-determining steps, and steering the selectivity towards the desired product yield, a Cu-Rh bimetallic system is studied.
1 V. Rosca, M. Duca, M. T. de Groot and M. T. M. Koper, Chem. Rev., 2009, 109, 2209–2244.
2 World Health Organization., Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality: Fourth Edition Incorporating the First Addendum, 2014.
3 M. Duca, B. van der Klugt and M. T. M. Koper, Electrochim. Acta, 2012, 68, 32–43.
4 D. Reyter, D. Bélanger and L. Roué, Electrochim. Acta, 2008, 53, 5977–5984.
5 L. Mattarozzi, S. Cattarin, N. Comisso, P. Guerriero, M. Musiani, L. Vázquez-Gómez and E. Verlato, Electrochim. Acta, 2013, 89, 488–496.
6 N. Comisso, S. Cattarin, P. Guerriero, L. Mattarozzi, M. Musiani, L. Vázquez-Gómez and E. Verlato, J. Solid State Electrochem., 2016, 20, 1139–1148.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
nanoGe Fall Meeting (NGFM) is a multiple symposia conference celebrated yearly and focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.