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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Nature Communications

Structural evolution-induced strong-coupling in CuRu-Cu2O nanocomposite enables low-overpotential electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis

  • Ying Zhang1,2
  • Tong Zhang1,2
  • Tianyi Gao1,2
  • Jiangnan Lv3
  • Yutong Luo1,2
  • Xuelian Qu1,2
  • Honghao Huang1,2
  • Fei Wang1,4
  • Fang Fang1,4
  • Yang Liu1,2,4
4 affiliations
  1. 1College of Smart Materials and Future Energy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
  2. 2State Key Laboratory of Coatings for Advanced Equipment, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
  3. 3Research Institute of Materials Science of Shanxi Normal University & Key Laboratory of Magnetic Molecules and Magnetic Information Materials of Ministry of Education, Shanxi Normal University, Taiyuan, China
  4. 4School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, China
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Abstract

Ammonia (NH3) synthesis via nitrate reduction offers a sustainable energy conversion and mitigates aquatic NO3− pollution, yet most catalysts require high overpotentials for appreciable NH3 yields. Here, we report a sulfur-leaching strategy to transform Cu1.8S/Ru heterostructures into a small CuRu-Cu2O nanocomposite with abundant heterointerfaces, enabling strong electronic coupling between CuRu and Cu2O particles, synergistically enhancing NO3– adsorption and reaction kinetics. The optimized catalyst achieves 95.4% NH3 Faradaic efficiency at a low potential of 0.0 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, stable over 30 cycles. Operando spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations reveal the incorporation of Ru facilitates active hydrogen generation, alleviating the energy barrier for hydrogenation steps at heterointerfaces. The catalyst demonstrates high stability in a membrane electrode assembly at 450 mA cm–2 over 200 h and enables a Zinc-NO3– battery operation exceeding 50 h, offering a design model for durable, active nanocomposites in sustainable NH3 synthesis.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{zhang2026structural,
  title = {{Structural evolution-induced strong-coupling in CuRu-Cu2O nanocomposite enables low-overpotential electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis}},
  author = {Ying Zhang and Tong Zhang and Tianyi Gao and Jiangnan Lv and Yutong Luo and Xuelian Qu and Honghao Huang and Fei Wang and Fang Fang and Yang Liu},
  journal = {Nature Communications},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77909-y},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77909-y},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Structural evolution-induced strong-coupling in CuRu-Cu2O nanocomposite enables low-overpotential electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis
AU  - Ying Zhang
AU  - Tong Zhang
AU  - Tianyi Gao
AU  - Jiangnan Lv
AU  - Yutong Luo
AU  - Xuelian Qu
AU  - Honghao Huang
AU  - Fei Wang
AU  - Fang Fang
AU  - Yang Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/24
JO  - Nature Communications
DO  - 10.1038/s41467-026-77909-y
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77909-y
AB  - Ammonia (NH3) synthesis via nitrate reduction offers a sustainable energy conversion and mitigates aquatic NO3− pollution, yet most catalysts require high overpotentials for appreciable NH3 yields. Here, we report a sulfur-leaching strategy to transform Cu1.8S/Ru heterostructures into a small CuRu-Cu2O nanocomposite with abundant heterointerfaces, enabling strong electronic coupling between CuRu and Cu2O particles, synergistically enhancing NO3– adsorption and reaction kinetics. The optimized catalyst achieves 95.4% NH3 Faradaic efficiency at a low potential of 0.0 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, stable over 30 cycles. Operando spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations reveal the incorporation of Ru facilitates active hydrogen generation, alleviating the energy barrier for hydrogenation steps at heterointerfaces. The catalyst demonstrates high stability in a membrane electrode assembly at 450 mA cm–2 over 200 h and enables a Zinc-NO3– battery operation exceeding 50 h, offering a design model for durable, active nanocomposites in sustainable NH3 synthesis.
SN  - 2041-1723
ER  -