Boosting Electrochemical Urea Synthesis via Constructing Ordered Pd–Zn Active Pair

Abstract

Highlights Ordered intermetallic pallium-zinc (PdZn) electrocatalyst comprising a high density of PdZn pairs is synthesized for achieving co-adsorption and co-activation carbon dioxide and nitrate. Both operando measurements and theoretical calculations reveal that the PdZn pairs provide a dual-site geometric structure conducive to the key C–N coupling with a low kinetical barrier. The intermetallic PdZn displays excellent performance for the co-reduction of nitrate (NO3 –) and carbon dioxide (CO2) toward urea, with a maximum FEurea of 62.78% at a small potential of – 0.4 V versus RHE.

Keywords

• Electrochemical C–N coupling
• Urea electrosynthesis
• Intermetallic compounds
• Geometric structures
• Active pairs