Synergistic photoelectric and thermal effect for efficient nitrate reduction on plasmonic Cu photocathodes
Recently,electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) has been intensively explored for the synthesis of ammonia,and copper (Cu) has become one of the most promising materials for NO3RR.Notably,Cu is an important plasmonic metal that absorbs visible light.The plasmonic effect might have a significant influence on the performance of Cu-catalyzed NO3RR but has been seldom re-ported.Herein,we report the synergistic photoelectric and thermal effect for efficient and stable NO3RR on plasmonic Cu nanowire photocathodes,which is exclusively effective for NO3RR but has no effect on the competing hydrogen evolution reaction.The faradaic efficiency for ammonia pro-duction is nearly 100％ within a potential range from-0.2 V to-0.4 V vs.RHE,and a high ammonia yield rate of 1.37 mmol h-1 cm-2 is achieved at-0.2 V vs.RHE.Further operando photoelectrochem-ical studies and theoretical simulations confirm that the plasmonic excitation efficiently accelerates the rate-limiting desorption of NH3 on Cu surfaces.We further demonstrate the versatility of this strategy to other Cu-based nanostructures.
Cu photocathodePlasmon-assisted electrocatalysisPhotoelectric effectPhotothermal effectNO3RR
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