Publication date: 15th December 2025
Ammonia (NH3) is a crucial component in the production of fertilisers and various chemicals, yet its traditional industrial synthesis via the Haber-Bosch process is energy-intensive and environmentally impactful [1,2]. As a result, a wide range of alternative sources, other than nitrogen gas (N2), for the synthesis of NH3 has been explored within the community. Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO3--to-NH3) offers a sustainable and decentralised alternative route by utilising renewable electricity to convert abundant NO3- sources, such as agricultural runoff or industrial wastewater, into valuable ammonia [3,4]. However, the development of efficient, durable, and environmentally friendly catalysts for this complex multi-electron transfer process remains a significant challenge. As such, this work presents a study on the development of a flexible, high-performance electrocatalyst composed of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and tungsten disulfide (WS2) nanosheets, on a robust reduced graphene oxide (rGO) modified carbon cloth (CC) substrate [5,6]. At the low applied potential of -0.4 V (vs. RHE) and in 0.1 M KOH electrolyte containing KNO3, MoS2/WS2-rGO@CC catalysts exhibited excellent nitrate reduction performance with a high Faradic Efficiency (FE) of ~30.3%, good selectivity for NO3-reduction to N2 (~97.9%), good hindrance to parasitic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), along with displaying outstanding NH3 yield rate of 50 mg.h-1.mgcat-1. Upon mimicking the neutral-pH environmental conditions of real wastewater outlets, the optimised electrocatalysts were used for NO3-RR in 0.1 M Phosphate Buffer (pH 7) electrolyte containing KNO3, showed an enhanced and stable NH3 yield rate of 206 μg.h-1.mgcat-1 with a ~18.1% FE in a flow system. This unique design of the electrocatalyst took advantage of the high surface area and conductivity of the rGO-modified CC, combined with the enhanced catalytic activity of the MoS2/WS2 heterostructures. In general, this study provides a practical pathway for tailoring 2D materials for application in wastewater treatment and environmental remediation.
This work has been funded by a grant from the Programme Johannes Amos Comenius under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004558 Advanced MUltiscLe materials for key Enabling Technologies (AMULET)).
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.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference 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.