High-Performance Ammonia Electrosynthesis from Nitrate in a NaOH-KOH-H2O Ternary Electrolyte.

A glut of dinitrogen-derived ammonia (NH3) over the past century has resulted in a heavily imbalanced nitrogen cycle and consequently, the large-scale accumulation of reactive nitrogen such as nitrates in our ecosystems has led to detrimental environmental issues. Electrocatalytic upcycling of waste nitrogen back into NH3 holds promise in mitigating these environmental impacts and reducing reliance on the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. Herein, we report a high-performance electrolyzer using an ultrahigh alkalinity electrolyte, NaOH-KOH-H2O, for low-cost NH3 electrosynthesis. At 3,000 mA/cm2, the device with a Fe-Cu-Ni ternary catalyst achieves an unprecedented faradaic efficiency (FE) of 92.5±1.5 % under a low cell voltage of 3.83 V; whereas at 1,000 mA/cm2, an FE of 96.5±4.8 % under a cell voltage of only 2.40 V was achieved. Techno-economic analysis revealed that our device cuts the levelized cost of ammonia electrosynthesis by ~40 % ($30.68 for Fe-Cu-Ni vs. $48.53 for Ni foam per kmol-NH3). The NaOH-KOH-H2O electrolyte together with the Fe-Cu-Ni ternary catalyst can enable the high-throughput nitrate-to-ammonia applications for affordable and scalable real-world wastewater treatments.