Co Nanoparticles Decorated Corncob-Derived Biomass Carbon as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Nitrate Reduction to Ammonia

Nitrate (NO₃^-) is a type of common pollutant in aqueous systems. Electrochemical NO₃^- reduction is an ecofriendly and sustainable strategy, which can selectively reduce NO₃^- to highly value-added NH₃ and remove NO₃^- pollutants at the same time. In this work, Co nanoparticles decorated corncob-derived biomass carbon as a highly active electrocatalyst for NO₃^- to NH₃ conversion. Such a catalyst can achieve an amazing Faradaic efficiency of 93.4% and a large NH₃ yield of 0.60 mmol h^-1 cm^-2 in alkaline media. ¹⁵N-Labeling experiment proves that the detected NH₃ is derived from NO₃^- electroreduction. In addition, it also displays excellent durability in long-term and cycle-electrolysis tests.