Electroreduction of CO2 and nitrate for urea synthesis on a low-coordinated copper catalyst

Peng Guo; Xindong Wang; Yufei Wang; Yanwei Luo; Ke Chu

doi:10.1039/d4cc05002a

Electroreduction of CO₂ and nitrate for urea synthesis on a low-coordinated copper catalyst

Chem Commun (Camb). 2024 Nov 21. doi: 10.1039/d4cc05002a. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Peng Guo¹, Xindong Wang¹, Yufei Wang², Yanwei Luo², Ke Chu³

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 451191, China.
² School of Physics, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China. luoyanwei@haut.edu.cn.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China. chuk630@mail.lzjtu.cn.

PMID: 39569694
DOI: 10.1039/d4cc05002a

Abstract

Electroreduction of CO₂ and NO₃^- to urea (ECNU) offers a fascinating route for migrating NO₃^- pollutants and synthesizing valuable urea. Herein, low-coordinated copper (L-Cu) is developed as an effective ECNU catalyst, delivering the highest urea yield rate of 30.96 mmol h^-1 g^-1 and urea-faradaic efficiency of 50.42% in a flow cell. Theoretical calculations reveal that Cu sites and low-coordinated Cu (Cu_L) sites on L-Cu can synergistically promote C-N coupling and inhibit the competing side reactions, leading to a high CO₂/NO₃^--to-urea efficiency.