- Yaoyu Yin,
- Zhongnan Ling,
- Shiqiang Liu,
- Yiyong Wang,
- Wenling Zhao,
- Hengan Wang,
- Jiahao Yang,
- Rongjuan Feng,
- Shipeng Zhang,
- Xueqing Xing,
- Lihong Jing,
- Qinggong Zhu,
- Xiaofu Sun,
- Jianling Zhang,
- Xinchen Kang &
- Buxing Han
Nature Sustainability (2025)Cite this article
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Abstract
The electrochemical co-reduction of abundant carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrates (NO3−) offers a more sustainable strategy for synthesizing urea, which is a critical nitrogen source for fertilizers. However, constrained proton-coupled electron transfer and limited opportunity for C–N coupling lead to a low urea production rate. In this work, we incorporated ionic liquid and copper [Cu(II)] into the zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 to create the IL@Cu-ZIF-8 catalyst. The as-prepared catalyst demonstrates excellent performance for the co-reduction of CO2 and NO3− to urea. At −0.5 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, the production rate of urea can reach 140 μmol h−1 cm−2 (~42,000 mg h−1 gcat−1), with a Faradaic efficiency toward urea of 55.3%. A total of 0.53 g of pure urea was generated over a 25-cm2 IL@Cu-ZIF-8 electrode after 5 h of electrolysis. Mechanism studies show that ionic liquid within the catalyst acts as a molecular bridge, linking the active centres of the catalyst and reactants through versatile interactions, which increases the concentration of surface reactants and reduces the proton-coupled electron transfer barrier, thereby promoting C–N coupling for urea synthesis. This work introduces an efficient strategy for urea electrosynthesis with a high production rate, representing a significant step toward scalable electrochemical synthesis of nitrogen-containing compounds.
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