Volume 64, Issue 28 e202501830
Research Article

Boosting Urea Electrosynthesis via Asymmetric Oxygen Vacancies in Zn-Doped Fe2O3 Catalysts

Xinning Song

Xinning Song

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Xiangyuan Jin

Xiangyuan Jin

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Tianhui Chen

Tianhui Chen

College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071 China

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Dr. Shoujie Liu

Dr. Shoujie Liu

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601 China

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Dr. Xiaodong Ma

Dr. Xiaodong Ma

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Dr. Xingxing Tan

Dr. Xingxing Tan

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Ruhan Wang

Ruhan Wang

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Libing Zhang

Libing Zhang

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Xing Tong

Xing Tong

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Ziwei Zhao

Ziwei Zhao

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Prof. Dr. Xinchen Kang

Prof. Dr. Xinchen Kang

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Prof. Dr. Qinggong Zhu

Prof. Dr. Qinggong Zhu

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Prof. Dr. Qingli Qian

Prof. Dr. Qingli Qian

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

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Prof. Dr. Xiaofu Sun

Corresponding Author

Prof. Dr. Xiaofu Sun

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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Prof. Dr. Buxing Han

Corresponding Author

Prof. Dr. Buxing Han

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Center for Carbon Neutral Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China

School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062 China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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First published: 06 May 2025

Graphical Abstract

The Zn-doped Fe2O3 catalysts with Zn–OV–Fe sites can promote the conversion of CO2-to-*CO and the coupling of *NO + *CO and thus improve the urea electrosynthesis. It exhibits an outstanding urea faradaic efficiency of 62.4% with a production rate of 7.48 mg h−1 mgcat−1.

Abstract

Urea electrosynthesis from CO2 and nitrate (NO3) provides an attractive pathway for storing renewable electricity and substituting traditional energy-intensive urea synthesis technology. However, the kinetics mismatching between CO2 reduction and NO3 reduction, as well as the difficulty of C─N coupling, are major challenges in urea electrosynthesis. Herein, we first calculated the free energy of *CO, *OCNO, and *NOH formation over defect-rich Fe2O3 catalysts with different metal dopants, which showed that Zn dopant was a promising candidate. Based on the theoretical study, we developed Zn-doped defect-rich Fe2O3 catalysts (Zn–Fe2O3/OV) containing asymmetric Zn–OV–Fe sites. It exhibited an outstanding urea faradaic efficiency of 62.4% and the remarkable recycling stability. The production rate of urea was as high as 7.48 mg h−1 mgcat−1, which is higher than most of the reported works to date. Detailed control experiments and in situ spectroscopy analyses identified *OCNO as a crucial intermediate for C─N coupling. The Zn–Fe2O3/OV catalyst with asymmetric Zn–OV–Fe sites showed enhanced *CO coverage and promoted *OCNO formation, leading to high efficiency toward urea production.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Supporting Information of this article.

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