A Strongly Coupled Metal/Hydroxide Heterostructure Cascades Carbon Dioxide and Nitrate Reduction Reactions toward Efficient Urea Electrosynthesis

Abstract The direct coupling of nitrate ions and carbon dioxide for urea synthesis presents an appealing alternative to the Bosch–Meiser process in industry. The simultaneous activation of carbon dioxide and nitrate, however, as well as efficient C−N coupling on single active site, poses significant challenges. Here, we propose a novel metal/hydroxide heterostructure strategy based on synthesizing an Ag−CuNi(OH) 2 composite to cascade carbon dioxide and nitrate reduction reactions for urea electrosynthesis. The strongly coupled metal/hydroxide heterostructure interface integrates two distinct sites for carbon dioxide and nitrate activation, and facilitates the coupling of *CO (on silver, where * denotes an…

• UO
  University of Wollongong
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 22309039, 22206042, 22479125
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province

  Award: LQ22B060007