Nano-Micro Letters, Volume. 16, Issue 1, 247(2024)

Boosting Electrochemical Urea Synthesis via Constructing Ordered Pd–Zn Active Pair

Weiliang Zhou1,†... Chao Feng1,2,†, Xuan Li1, Xingxing Jiang1, Lingyan Jing1, Shuai Qi1, Qihua Huo1, Miaoyuan Lv1, Xinbao Chen1, Tianchi Huang1, Jingwen Zhao1, Na Meng1, Hengpan Yang1, Qi Hu1,* and Chuanxin He1,** |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060 Guangdong, People’s Republic of China
  • 2School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering/State Key Laboratory Incubation Base for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832003 Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China
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    Electrochemical co-reduction of nitrate (NO3–) and carbon dioxide (CO2) has been widely regarded as a promising route to produce urea under ambient conditions, however the yield rate of urea has remained limited. Here, we report an atomically ordered intermetallic pallium-zinc (PdZn) electrocatalyst comprising a high density of PdZn pairs for boosting urea electrosynthesis. It is found that Pd and Zn are responsible for the adsorption and activation of NO3– and CO2, respectively, and thus the co-adsorption and co-activation NO3– and CO2 are achieved in ordered PdZn pairs. More importantly, the ordered and well-defined PdZn pairs provide a dual-site geometric structure conducive to the key C–N coupling with a low kinetical barrier, as demonstrated on both operando measurements and theoretical calculations. Consequently, the PdZn electrocatalyst displays excellent performance for the co-reduction to generate urea with a maximum urea Faradaic efficiency of 62.78% and a urea yield rate of 1274.42 μg mg–1 h–1, and the latter is 1.5-fold larger than disordered pairs in PdZn alloys. This work paves new pathways to boost urea electrosynthesis via constructing ordered dual-metal pairs.

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    Weiliang Zhou, Chao Feng, Xuan Li, Xingxing Jiang, Lingyan Jing, Shuai Qi, Qihua Huo, Miaoyuan Lv, Xinbao Chen, Tianchi Huang, Jingwen Zhao, Na Meng, Hengpan Yang, Qi Hu, Chuanxin He. Boosting Electrochemical Urea Synthesis via Constructing Ordered Pd–Zn Active Pair[J]. Nano-Micro Letters, 2024, 16(1): 247

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    Paper Information

    Category: Research Articles

    Received: Apr. 15, 2024

    Accepted: Jun. 16, 2024

    Published Online: Jan. 23, 2025

    The Author Email: Hu Qi (hq2016@szu.edu.cn), He Chuanxin (hecx@szu.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.1007/s40820-024-01462-w

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