IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-60636-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Photothermal-electrocatalysis interface for fuel-cell grade ammonia harvesting from the environment

Author

Listed:
  • Pengfei Wang

    (University of Electronic Science and Technology of China)

  • Panpan Li

    (Sichuan University
    Haitian Water Group)

  • Zhicheng Pan

    (Haitian Water Group)

  • Kui Liu

    (Sichuan University)

  • Minghao Xie

    (The University of Texas at Austin)

  • Liwei Zhou

    (Ltd. Energy Engineering Branch)

  • Min Zhou

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Guihua Yu

    (The University of Texas at Austin)

  • Zhaoyu Jin

    (University of Electronic Science and Technology of China)

Abstract

The development of sustainable artificial nitrogen recycling technologies enables ammonia extraction from ambient sources, facilitating zero-carbon Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus integration. While electrochemical reduction of oxidized nitrogen offers promise for ammonia synthesis, purifying low-concentration products remains a challenge, limiting practical applications and undermining the Haber-Bosch process’s viability. Here, we introduce a photothermal-electrocatalysis interface (PTEI) based on a Janus hybrid nanoarchitecture electrode, demonstrating synergistic enhancement in ammonia yield and evaporation performance. The photothermal-electrocatalysis interface-integrated system continuously produces and purifies ~2 M pure ammonia solution at up to 13.7 mg cm−2 h−1 from plasma-ionized air and achieves 80% total nitrogen recovery with 0.36 M ammonia from simulated industrial wastewater. This approach enables efficient extraction of concentrated ammonia for direct fuel cell use, offering techno-economic benefits and significantly reducing global warming impacts via life cycle assessment. Our findings highlight the PTEI system’s innovative potential in addressing WEF Nexus challenges, paving the way for sustainable waste-to-resource/fuel transitions.

Suggested Citation

  • Pengfei Wang & Panpan Li & Zhicheng Pan & Kui Liu & Minghao Xie & Liwei Zhou & Min Zhou & Guihua Yu & Zhaoyu Jin, 2025. "Photothermal-electrocatalysis interface for fuel-cell grade ammonia harvesting from the environment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60636-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60636-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60636-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-60636-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-60636-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.