In:
Nature Communications, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 14, No. 1 ( 2023-07-26)
Abstract:
Electrocatalytic urea synthesis is an emerging alternative technology to the traditional energy-intensive industrial urea synthesis protocol. Novel strategies are urgently needed to promote the electrocatalytic C–N coupling process and inhibit the side reactions. Here, we report a CuWO 4 catalyst with native bimetallic sites that achieves a high urea production rate (98.5 ± 3.2 μg h −1 mg −1 cat ) for the co-reduction of CO 2 and NO 3 − with a high Faradaic efficiency (70.1 ± 2.4%) at −0.2 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that the combination of stable intermediates of *NO 2 and *CO increases the probability of C–N coupling and reduces the potential barrier, resulting in high Faradaic efficiency and low overpotential. This study provides a new perspective on achieving efficient urea electrosynthesis by stabilizing the key reaction intermediates, which may guide the design of other electrochemical systems for high-value C–N bond-containing chemicals.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2041-1723
DOI:
10.1038/s41467-023-40273-2
Language:
English
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2553671-0
