Reaction pathways on N-substituted carbon catalysts during the electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonia

Electrochemical reduction of nitrate into ammonia is one potential strategy to valorize pollutants needed to close the nitrogen cycle. The understanding of carbonaceous materials as metal-free representatives of electrocatalysts is of high importance to ensure sufficient activity and target selectivity. We report on the role of defects in cellulose-derived nitrogen-doped carbon (NDC) materials, produced by ammonolysis at different temperatures, to obtain efficient electrocatalysts for the nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR). Carbon catalyst ammonolysis at 800 °C (NDC-800) yields the highest electrochemical performance, exhibiting 73.1% NH4+ selectivity and nearly 100% NO3- reduction efficiency with a prolonged NO3RR time (48 h) at -1.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl in a 0.1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte. We provide support to our findings by undertaking complementary structural analyses with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, low-temperature N2 adsorption, and theoretical studies based on multi-scale/level calculations. Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations based on a reactive force field combined with quantum chemistry (QC) calculations on representative model systems suggest possible realistic scenarios of the material structure and reaction mechanisms of the NO3- reduction routes.