Electrocatalytic Nitrate Reduction and Ammonia Synthesis
This community develops catalysts to convert nitrate and nitrogen gas into ammonia and urea, primarily using electrochemical and photocatalytic methods.
The work centers on designing transition metal catalysts, including single-atom and diatomic sites, to drive the reduction of nitrate and nitrogen. Recurring materials include copper, ruthenium, iron, and molybdenum-based oxides and alloys, often engineered with oxygen vacancies or specific heterointerfaces. The primary applications are the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia from nitrate or nitrogen, the production of urea from nitrate and carbon dioxide, and the decomposition of ammonia. Methods frequently involve relay catalysis, hydrogen spillover, and tandem reaction mechanisms to enhance efficiency under ambient conditions.
The largest share of the community's output is found in nitrogen research, accounting for 3.6% of all nitrogen-related papers, with 14,370 papers in this group. Hydrogen research follows with a 2.3% share and 9,983 papers.
The community comprises 20,172 papers, published most frequently in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Inorganic Chemistry, and Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Recent work continues to focus on optimizing catalysts for nitrate-to-ammonia conversion, with new studies exploring plasma-electrocatalytic urea synthesis, tandem copper-cobalt sites in metal-organic frameworks, and interfacial hydrogen spillover mechanisms to boost electroreduction efficiency.