Abstract
Urea plays a vital role in the sustainable development of mankind as it is one of the most important nitrogen fertilizers.Conventional synthesis of urea is accompanied by a high level of energy consumption while electrocatalytic methods suffer from low yields and poor selectivity.Our work achieves efficient synthesis of urea by designing the graphene-In2O3 electrocatalysts for the co-activated reduction of ni-trate and carbon dioxide,where the formation rate of urea,Faraday efficiency(FE)and carbon selectivity at-0.35 V vs.RHE can reach 357.47 μg mg-1 h-1,10.46％and～100％,respectively.Herein,the key interme-diates in the C-N coupling reaction are demonstrated to be*NH2 and*CO2,which is of novelty compared to previous reports.This work may provide inspiration for subsequent studies on the reaction mechanism of the electrochemical synthesis of urea,as well as theoretical guidance for the sustainable synthesis of some other important chemical substances.
基金项目
国家自然科学基金(91741105)
Chongqing Municipal Natural Science Foundation(cstc2018jcyjAX0625)
重庆市高等学校创新团队建设计划(CXTDX201601011)
NETL
NSTL
万方数据