Developing highly selective and active electrocatalysts for the NO reduction reaction (NORR) has attracted significant interest. Here, we improved the catalytic performance via surface decorating the CuO catalyst with palladium (Pd) clusters, which are expected to facilitate the hydrogenation of NO due to their strong affinity for hydrogen. The prepared catalyst exhibited a high NH yield rate of 0.555 mmol h cm (2.79 mmol h mg) and a remarkable faradaic efficiency (FE) of 95.8%, which is attributed to the numerous heterointerfaces between CuO and Pd clusters on the catalytic surface. Density functional theory calculations provided insights into the role of the newly introduced active sites in promoting NORR, thereby explaining the superior activity of the Pd cluster-decorated CuO catalyst. The formation of copper domains during the NORR also suppressed the competing reaction, the hydrogen evolution reaction, which has led to increased NH FE and NORR activity over multiple catalytic cycles.

中文翻译：

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Pd/Cu2O异质纳米结构的协同作用促进硝酸盐向氨的电化学转化


开发用于 NO 还原反应 (NORR) 的高选择性和活性电催化剂引起了人们的极大兴趣。在这里，我们通过用钯 (Pd) 簇对 CuO 催化剂进行表面修饰来提高催化性能，由于它们对氢具有很强的亲和力，预计将促进 NO 的加氢。所制备的催化剂表现出 0.555 mmol h cm (2.79 mmol h mg) 的高 NH 收率和高达 95.8% 的法拉第效率 (FE)，这归因于催化表面上 CuO 和 Pd 簇之间的大量异质界面。密度泛函理论计算深入了解了新引入的活性位点在促进 NORR 中的作用，从而解释了 Pd 簇修饰的 CuO 催化剂的优异活性。 NORR 过程中铜域的形成还抑制了竞争反应，即析氢反应，从而导致在多个催化循环中 NH FE 和 NORR 活性增加。