TY - JOUR
T1 - Earth-abundant elements a sustainable solution for electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate
AU - Fajardo, Ana S.
AU - Westerhoff, Paul
AU - Sanchez-Sanchez, Carlos M.
AU - Garcia-Segura, Sergi
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 843870. This work was partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Nanosystems Engineering Research Center under project EEC-1449500. Laurel Passantino provided technical editing.
Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 843870 . This work was partially funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Nanosystems Engineering Research Center under project EEC-1449500. Laurel Passantino provided technical editing.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - Platinum group elements (PGEs) are widely-used electrocatalysts. However, the low abundance of PGEs in the earth's crust and high environmental impacts to be acquired result in high costs, limiting their use in drinking water treatment. Identifying sustainable alternatives to PGEs is a major barrier in applying electrocatalysis for nitrate reduction. By moving up the periodic table, this study provides a framework for selecting promising earth-abundant elements that can electrocatalytically degrade nitrate in water to innocuous by-products. We benchmarked platinum (Pt) against less-endangered elements for electrodes by quantifying nitrate reduction rates, by-product selectivity, and energy efficiencies. Carbon (as boron-doped diamond) and tin had the highest average selectivity towards nitrogen gas evolution (55 % and 64 %, respectively) outperforming Pt, which only had 1% selectivity, and had comparable electrical energy per order removal of nitrate. Thus, earth-abundant elements for electrocatalysis hold tremendous promise as innovative, low-cost, and sustainable processes for the water treatment marketplace.
AB - Platinum group elements (PGEs) are widely-used electrocatalysts. However, the low abundance of PGEs in the earth's crust and high environmental impacts to be acquired result in high costs, limiting their use in drinking water treatment. Identifying sustainable alternatives to PGEs is a major barrier in applying electrocatalysis for nitrate reduction. By moving up the periodic table, this study provides a framework for selecting promising earth-abundant elements that can electrocatalytically degrade nitrate in water to innocuous by-products. We benchmarked platinum (Pt) against less-endangered elements for electrodes by quantifying nitrate reduction rates, by-product selectivity, and energy efficiencies. Carbon (as boron-doped diamond) and tin had the highest average selectivity towards nitrogen gas evolution (55 % and 64 %, respectively) outperforming Pt, which only had 1% selectivity, and had comparable electrical energy per order removal of nitrate. Thus, earth-abundant elements for electrocatalysis hold tremendous promise as innovative, low-cost, and sustainable processes for the water treatment marketplace.
KW - Advanced reduction processes
KW - Cathodic materials
KW - Electrochemical technologies
KW - Selectivity towards nitrogen
KW - Water treatment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.119465
DO - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.119465
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090150892
VL - 281
JO - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
JF - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
SN - 0926-3373
M1 - 119465
ER -