Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction and Ammonia Synthesis
This community develops catalysts and electrochemical methods to convert nitrate and nitrogen gas into ammonia, with a secondary focus on producing urea and hydrogen.
The research centers on designing transition-metal catalysts, including single-atom sites and alloys, to drive the electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonia under ambient conditions. Recurring methods include photocatalysis, plasma-assisted synthesis, and the engineering of oxygen vacancies to enhance reaction efficiency. A significant portion of the work addresses the selective conversion of nitrate from wastewater or low-concentration sources, while a smaller strand explores nitrogen fixation from atmospheric gas and propane dehydrogenation. The most cited studies detail mechanisms for relay catalysis and hydrogen spillover to improve selectivity and current density.
The largest share of the community's output is found in hydrogen research, accounting for 11.7% of all hydrogen research, and 4,691 papers here. Nitrogen research follows, with 9.7% of all nitrogen research and 6,346 papers.
The community comprises 11,374 papers, publishing primarily in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.
Recent work continues to focus on electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia, with new studies exploring tandem catalysts, MOF-based sites, and the integration of plasma and electrocatalysis for urea synthesis from carbon dioxide and nitrate.
Papers behind this description
- Ultralow overpotential nitrate reduction to ammonia via a three-step relay mechanism — Nature Catalysis, 2023 — doi:10.1038/s41929-023-00951-2
- Electrocatalytic Nitrate and Nitrite Reduction toward Ammonia Using Cu 2 O Nanocubes: Active Species and Reaction Mechanisms — Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024 — doi:10.1021/jacs.3c13288
- Fe/Cu diatomic catalysts for electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia — Nature Communications, 2023 — doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39366-9
- Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction: Ammonia Synthesis and the Beyond — Advanced Materials, 2023 — doi:10.1002/adma.202304021
- Active hydrogen boosts electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonia — Nature Communications, 2022 — doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35664-w
- Ampere-level current density ammonia electrochemical synthesis using CuCo nanosheets simulating nitrite reductase bifunctional nature — Nature Communications, 2022 — doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35533-6
- Efficient conversion of low-concentration nitrate sources into ammonia on a Ru-dispersed Cu nanowire electrocatalyst — Nature Nanotechnology, 2022 — doi:10.1038/s41565-022-01121-4
- Unveiling Cutting‐Edge Developments in Electrocatalytic Nitrate‐to‐Ammonia Conversion — Advanced Materials, 2024 — doi:10.1002/adma.202312746
- Thermally Enhanced Relay Electrocatalysis of Nitrate-to-Ammonia Reduction over Single-Atom-Alloy Oxides — Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024 — doi:10.1021/jacs.4c00429
- Urea Electrosynthesis from Nitrate and CO 2 on Diatomic Alloys — Advanced Materials, 2024 — doi:10.1002/adma.202402160
- Intensifying Interfacial Reverse Hydrogen Spillover for Boosted Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia — Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2025 — doi:10.1002/anie.202422585
- Continuous-flow electrosynthesis of ammonia by nitrogen reduction and hydrogen oxidation — Science, 2023 — doi:10.1126/science.adf4403
- Plasma-electrocatalytic synthesis of urea from air and CO2 — Nature Communications, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s41467-025-63923-z
- CeOx-Integrated dual site enhanced urea electrosynthesis from nitrate and carbon dioxide — Nature Communications, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s41467-025-63839-8
- Stabilizing Cu0-Cuδ+ sites via ohmic contact interface engineering for ampere-level nitrate electroreduction to ammonia — Nature Communications, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s41467-025-63996-w
- Ammonia as a renewable energy carrier from synthesis to utilization — Nature Reviews Clean Technology, 2025 — doi:10.1038/s44359-025-00102-9
- Tandem Cu–Co Sites in MOF-818 for Efficient Ammonia Electrosynthesis from Nitrate in Neutral Media — ACS Catalysis, 2025 — doi:10.1021/acscatal.5c04411
- Antiferroelectric SnO 2 Network with Amorphous Surface for Electrochemical N 2 Fixation — Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2025 — doi:10.1002/anie.202515222