Our newly published open access manuscript on electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 and Nitrate to syngas, ammonium ions, and urea. The studies show that activity and selectivity of Cu single atom catalysts (SACs) within an N-doped carbon framework can be tuned to produce various products.

Through comprehensive spectroscopy experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we found Cu-N4 sites are beneficial for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction to syngas, while undercoordinated Cu-N4-x-Cx sites give slightly better performance for Nitrate reduction to NH4+. Interestingly the Cu SACs (with rich Cu-N4 sites) can also reduce CO2 and Nitrate simultaneously to produce urea. We found single atom coordination tuning plays a critical role in facilitating the coupling of C-N for urea synthesis

The fundamental and scientific insights unveiled in this work provide a pathway for the development of highly active single atom catalysts for the synthesis of urea from waste CO2 and NOx, a viable pathway for decarbonising urea production. Another example of “Renewable Power and Waste” to X.

If you are interested to collaborate or study with us on Power to X technologies, please contact Prof Rose Amal or Dr Rahman Daiyan

Graphical Abstract Adv Energy Materials, July 2022