Schottky Barrier-Induced Surface Electric Field Boosts Universal Reduction of NOx - in Water to Ammonia.

NOx - reduction acts a pivotal part in sustaining globally balanced nitrogen cycle and restoring ecological environment, ammonia (NH3 ) is an excellent energy carrier and the most valuable product among all the products of NOx - reduction reaction, the selectivity of which is far from satisfaction due to the intrinsic complexity of multiple-electron NOx - -to-NH3 process. Here, we utilize the Schottky barrier-induced surface electric field, by the construction of high density of electron-deficient Ni nanoparticles inside nitrogen-rich carbons, to facilitate the enrichment and fixation of all NOx - anions on the electrode surface, including NO3 - and NO2 - , and thus ensure the final selectivity to NH3 . Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that NOx - anions were continuously captured by the electrode with largely enhanced surface electric field, providing excellent Faradaic efficiency of 99 % from both electrocatalytic NO3 - and NO2 - reduction. Remarkably, the NH3 yield rate could reach the maximum of 25.1 mg h-1  cm-2 in electrocatalytic NO2 - reduction reaction, outperforming the maximum in the literature by a factor of 6.3 in neutral solution. With the universality of our electrocatalyst, all sorts of available electrolytes containing NOx - pollutants, including seawater or wastewater, could be directly used for ammonia production in potential through sustainable electrochemical technology.