Enhanced nitrate reduction reaction via efficient intermediate nitrite conversion on tunable CuxNiy/NC electrocatalysts

Electroreduction of nitrate (NO3-) to value-added ammonia (NH3) provides an alternative to NH3 production industry and remediation of NO3--containing wastewater. This study reports a series of Cu-Ni catalysts with component-controllable CuxNiy nanoparticles encapsulated in N-doped carbon film (CuxNiy/NC), and disclosure of the associated mechanism for NO3- reduction reaction (NO3-RR). Cu0.43Ni0.57/NC achieves a better NO3--N removal proportion of 89% in comparison with the reference catalysts, including Cu/NC (73%) and CuxNiy/NC with other compositions (Cu0.79Ni0.21/NC, 83%; Cu0.26Ni0.74/NC, 62%; Ni/NC, 20%). The experimental results and density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the lowered energy barriers of *NO2-to-*NO derived from appropriate Ni atom alloying plays a key role in the enhanced catalytic activity. Auxiliary porous substrate further contributes to the exposure of active sites and the durability of catalyst structure. These findings offer a mechanistic understanding of catalyst structure on the NO3-RR activity and valuable insights toward rational design of other catalysts for enhanced NO3-RR.