Electronic Structure Optimization and Proton-Transfer Enhancement on Titanium Oxide-Supported Copper Nanoparticles for Enhanced Nitrogen Recycling from Nitrate-Contaminated Water

Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate to NH3 (NO3RR) on Cu offers sustainable NH3 production and nitrogen recycling from nitrate-contaminated water. However, Cu affords limited NO3RR activity owing to its unfavorable electronic state and the slow proton transfer on its surface, especially in neutral/alkaline media. Furthermore, although a synchronous “NO3RR and NH3 collection” system has been developed for nitrogen recycling from nitrate-laden water, no system is designed for natural water that generally contains low-concentration nitrate. Herein, we demonstrate that depositing Cu nanoparticles on a TiO2 support enables the formation of electron-deficient Cuδ+ species (0 < δ ≤ 2), which are more active than Cu0 in NO3RR. Furthermore, TiO2–Cu coupling induces local electric-field enhancement that intensifies water adsorption/dissociation at the interface, accelerating proton transfer for NO3RR on Cu. With the dual enhancements, TiO2–Cu delivers an NH3-N selectivity of 90.5%, mass activity of 41.4 mg-N h gCu–1, specific activity of 377.8 mg-N h–1 m–2, and minimal Cu leaching (<25.4 μg L–1) when treating 22.5 mg L–1 of NO3–-N at −0.40 V, outperforming most of the reported Cu-based catalysts. A sequential NO3RR and NH3 collection system based on TiO2–Cu was then proposed, which could recycle nitrogen from nitrate-contaminated water under a wide concentration window of 22.5–112.5 mg L–1 at a rate of 209–630 mgN m–2 h–1. We also demonstrated this system could collect 83.9% of nitrogen from NO3–-N (19.3 mg L–1) in natural lake water.