This work is to design metallic catalyst electrodes that will be able to achieve high degree of nitrate reduction toward high nitrogen selectivity. It is hypothesized that the structure of the bimetallic catalysts bears significant influence on nitrate reduction and nitrogen selectivity. Bimetallic catalysts prepared with tin (Sn) and palladium (Pd) were electrochemically deposited on stainless-steel support in different cycle and sequence of deposition between Sn and Pd. Results showed that one-interfaced tin-modified palladium bimetallic electrodes synthesized via multiple electrodeposition procedures substantially improved the performance of nitrate transformation and nitrogen yield comparing to electrodes prepared in single electrodeposition procedure. Additionally, modifying the interfacial structures between tin and palladium (multi-interface bimetallic electrodes) was found to affect the surface morphology and impact nitrate reduction capability. Most significantly, electrodes with zero-interfaced tin-modified palladium bimetallic electrodes (randomly distributed Sn and Pd electrodes) achieved nearly 100% nitrate removal and 81% nitrogen yield. Overall, our electrode fabrication approach can provide a new direction for the preparation of highly-efficient and highly-selective catalytic electrodes for water treatment applications.<br/>

Bimetallic catalysts for electrochemical nitrate reduction toward high nitrogen selectivity

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.