Work

Nitrogen‐doped carbon‐armored copper–nickel alloy electrocatalytic C–N coupling for urea synthesis

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Excessive CO2 and NOx emissions surpass Earth's capacity, driving environmental degradation. Electrocatalytic CO2 and NO3− co‐reduction offers a sustainable route to value‐added chemicals like urea, addressing emissions and advancing green synthesis. However, copper‐based catalysts, while efficient in CO2‐to‐hydrocarbon and nitrate‐to‐ammonia conversion, show limited activity for C–N coupling reactions. To address this, we developed a nitrogen‐doped carbon nanotube‐coated CuNi alloy catalyst (CuNi@C) leveraging bimetallic synergy to achieve a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 32.8% for urea synthesis from CO2 and NO3− at −0.6 V (vs. RHE), with stable performance over 26 h. In situ ATR‐SEIRAS and DFT calculations revealed that bridge adsorption of *CO induced a Stark effect, promoting C–N bond formation, while a unique hydrogen‐bonding network suppressed HER. *NHO and *CO were identified as key intermediates in the C–N coupling process.

Source: AIChE Journal

DOI: 10.1002/aic.70048

Authors: Jing Tao, Chaochen Wang, Yihua Zhu, Jianhua Shen

Institution: East China University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts

Subfield: Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

Field: Energy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities