CCR Seminar: Understanding and Tailoring Product Distribution in the Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrate

Abstract: Fertilizer use and fossil-fuel combustion has increased nitrate concentrations in many wastewaters and watersheds to levels that threaten environmental and human health. Consequently, treatment of nitrate-contaminated water is a growing area of energy consumption. Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction (NO3RR) offers a distributable treatment solution also capable of producing value-added products (e.g. ammonium), using electrons as a reducing agent at ambient temperatures and pressures. However, nitrate reduction occurs at similar electrochemical potentials to water reduction, under conditions where the surface is considered negatively charged. Here we share how the competitive adsorption of nitrate and hydrogen (protons), governed by catalyst electronic structure, influences Faradaic efficiency and selectivity. We will then use this understanding to rationally design alloy catalysts and manipulate the reaction environment in ways to tailor product distribution in NO3RR.

Bio: Dr. Kelsey A. Stoerzinger is an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. Stoerzinger…