Ni nanoparticle-decorated biomass carbon for efficient electrocatalytic nitrite reduction to ammonia.

Electrocatalytic nitrite (NO 2 - ) reduction to ammonia (NH 3 ) can not only synthesize value-added NH 3 , but also remove NO 2 - pollutants from the environment. However, the low efficiency of NO 2 - -to-NH 3 conversion hinders its applications. Here, Ni nanoparticle-decorated juncus-derived biomass carbon prepared at 800 °C (Ni@JBC-800) serves as an efficient catalyst for NH 3 synthesis by selective electroreduction of NO 2 - . This catalyst shows a remarkable NH 3 yield of 4117.3 μg h -1 mg cat. -1 and a large faradaic efficiency of 83.4% in an alkaline electrolyte. The catalytic mechanism is further investigated by theoretical calculations.