Publication date: 15th December 2025
Fertilizer use and fossil-fuel combustion has increased nitrate concentrations in many wastewaters and watersheds to levels that threaten environmental and human health. Consequently, treatment of nitrate-contaminated water is a growing area of energy consumption. Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction (NO3RR) offers a distributable treatment solution also capable of producing value-added products (e.g. ammonium), using electrons as a reducing agent at ambient temperatures and pressures [1]. However, nitrate reduction occurs at similar electrochemical potentials to water reduction, under conditions where the surface is considered negatively charged. Here we share how the competitive adsorption of nitrate and hydrogen (protons), governed by catalyst electronic structure, influences Faradaic efficiency and selectivity [2]. This understanding, and it's link to catalyst electronic structure, informs our design of alloy catalysts tailored to individual aspects of the reaction network [3]. We will further consider how the identity of alkali cations in the electrolyte influence the kinetic rate of reaction and aspects of reactant transport to the catalyst surface, shedding light on the complex NO3RR reaction mechanism.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, & Biosciences Division, Catalysis program under Award numbers DE-SC0022970 and DE-SC0024865.
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