Sulfonate-Functionalized Metal–Organic Framework as a Porous “Proton Reservoir” for Boosting Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrate to Ammonia

The electrochemical reduction reaction of nitrate (NO₃RR) is an attractive route to produce ammonia at ambient conditions, but the conversion from nitrate to ammonia, which requires nine protons, has to compete with both the two-proton process of nitrite formation and the hydrogen evolution reaction. Extensive research efforts have thus been made in recent studies to develop electrocatalysts for the NO₃RR facilitating the production of ammonia. Rather than designing another better electrocatalyst, herein, we synthesize an electrochemically inactive, porous, and chemically robust zirconium-based metal-organic framework (MOF) with enriched intraframework sulfonate groups, SO₃-MOF-808, as a coating deposited on top of the catalytically active copper-based electrode. Although both the overall reaction rate and electrochemically active surface area of the electrode are barely affected by the MOF coating, with negatively charged sulfonate groups capable of enriching more protons near the electrode surface, the MOF coating significantly promotes the selectivity of the NO₃RR toward the production of ammonia. In contrast, the use of MOF coating with positively charged trimethylammonium groups to repulse protons strongly facilitates the conversion of nitrate to nitrite, with selectivity of more than 90% at all potentials. Under the optimal operating conditions, the copper electrocatalyst with SO₃-MOF-808 coating can achieve a Faradaic efficiency of 87.5% for ammonia production, a nitrate-to-ammonia selectivity of 95.6%, and an ammonia production rate of 97 μmol/cm² h, outperforming all of those achieved by both the pristine copper (75.0%; 93.9%; 87 μmol/cm² h) and copper with optimized Nafion coating (83.3%; 86.9%; 64 μmol/cm² h). Findings here suggest the function of MOF as an advanced alternative to the commercially available Nafion to enrich protons near the surface of electrocatalyst for NO₃RR, and shed light on the potential of utilizing such electrochemically inactive MOF coatings in a range of proton-coupled electrocatalytic reactions.