Efficient urea electrosynthesis from nitrite and CO2 reduction on single W atom catalyst

Di Yuan; Yafu Jiang; Wenyu Du; Dongwei Ma; Ke Chu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.075

Efficient urea electrosynthesis from nitrite and CO₂ reduction on single W atom catalyst

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Nov 15;680(Pt B):36-42. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.075. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Di Yuan¹, Yafu Jiang², Wenyu Du³, Dongwei Ma⁴, Ke Chu⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Anyang Normal University, Anyang 455000, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
² School of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Anyang Normal University, Anyang 455000, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
⁴ Anhui Province Industrial Generic Technology Research Center for Alumics Materials, School of Physics and Electronic Information, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, Anhui 235000, China.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39550851
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.075

Abstract

Electroreduction of CO₂ and NO₂^- to urea (ECNU) provides a fascinating method for concurrently migrating polluted NO₂^- and producing value-added urea. In this study, atomically dispersed W on MoS₂ (W₁/MoS₂) is designed as an efficient ECNU catalyst, which exhibits the highest Faraday efficiency of 60.11 % and urea yield rate of 35.80 mmol h^-1 g^-1 in flow cell. Atomic characterizations reveal that W single atoms exist as isolated W₁-S₃ moieties on MoS₂. Combined theoretical calculations and operando spectroscopic measurements demonstrate that the enhanced ECNU performance of W₁/MoS₂ arises from the construction of W₁-S₃ moieties that can promote CN coupling and hydrogenation energetics, whilst suppressing the competing side reactions.

Keywords: Atomically dispersed catalysts; Operando spectroscopic measurements; Theoretical calculations; Urea electrosynthesis.