Peptide templated bimetallic Cu-Pt nanostructures for the electrochemical ammonia synthesis via nitrate reduction Deepak Kumar Krishnan Kori Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India NH 3 is regarded as an important chemical for the production of plastics, fertilizers, nitric acid, explosives and intermediates for pharmaceuticals. Herein, Cu-rich bimetallic nanocomposite CuPt on nanofibrillar network of peptide bolaamphiphile hydrogel is reported as a high-performance NO 3 RR electrocatalyst for the conversion of NO 3 - to NH 3. The developed CuPt(3:1)@hydrogel showed excellent catalytic activity with a maximum Faradaic efficiency of 72.33% at -1.0 V (vs Hg/HgO) and a relatively high NH 3 yield of 0.71 mg h –1 mg cat –1 at -1.2 V (vs Hg/ HgO) in alkaline electrolyte (1 M KOH) containing 0.1 M KNO 3 . CuPt(3:1)@hydrogel demonstrated a low solution resistance ( R s = 1.58 Ω), low charge transfer resistance ( R ct = 5.58 Ω), and high electrochemical active surface area (3.01X10 -4 cm 2 ) between the dense nanofibrillar network interface of CuPt(3:1)@hydrogel and the electrolyte during NO 3 RR performance. The nanofibrillar network of peptide bolaamphiphile provides highly exposed catalytic active sites, whereas the synergistic interaction of bimetallic CuPt composition helps to improve the reactivity of these active sites. References 1. J. Wang, C. Cai, Y. Wang, X. Yang, D. Wu, Y. Zhu, M. Li, M. Gu and M. Shao, ACS Catal. , 2021, 11 , 15135–15140. 2. Z. Fang, Z. Jin, S. Tang, P. Li, P. Wu and G. Yu, ACS Nano , 2022, 16 , 1072–1081. 3. F. Liu, C. Chen, X. Jiang, J. Y. Guo, Y. Wei, J. W. Li, T. Sheng, X. Zhao and L. Wei, ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. , 2023, 11 , 1631–1637. 4. Y. Huang, J. Long, Y. Wang, N. Meng, Y. Yu, S. Lu, J. Xiao and B. Zhang, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces , 2021, 13 , 54967– 54973. 5. J. Wang, D. Wu, M. Li, X. Wei, X. Yang, M. Shao and M. Gu, Nano Lett. , 2022, 22 , 5600–5606. 6. K. Wu, C. Sun, Z. Wang, Q. Song, X. Bai, X. Yu, Q. Li, Z. Wang, H. Zhang, J. Zhang, X. Tong, Y. Liang, A. Khosla and Z. Zhao, ACS Mater. Lett. , 2022, 4 , 650–656.
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