Coupling layered spraying with Joule heating to achieve efficient CuZn alloy synthesis for self-powered nitrate reduction to ammonia

Electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonia (NO 3 RR) is an emerging and environmentally sustainable approach for synthesizing ammonia (NH 3 ). However, the electrocatalytic NO 3 RR faces significant challenges of the slow kinetics of active hydrogen (*H) transfer and extreme dependence on conventional energy sources. Herein, we innovatively propose a novel strategy of layered spraying coupled with a Joule heating strategy to prepare a CuZn 5 alloy for enhancing the adsorption energy of *H and reducing the desorption energy of NH 3 , which is guided by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The synthesized CuZn 5 alloy exhibits exceptional performance, with a remarkable NH 3 Faradaic efficiency reaching 98.4 % and an impressive yield rate of 420 μmol h −1 cm −2 . Furthermore, the CuZn 5 catalyst is integrated into a self-powered NO 3 RR system, which is powered by a high-performance triboelectric nanogenerator ( I max = 100 μA, V max = 600 V), achieving an NH 3 yield rate of 54.70 μmol h −1 cm −2 without the external power source. This study presents a novel method for the efficient preparation of NO 3 RR catalysts and offers a clean energy solution for the production of high-value chemicals.