Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2024 Conference (MATSUS24)
Publication date: 18th December 2023
Nitrates occur naturally in the environment. However, uncontrolled human activity has introduced an enormous amount of nitrates into water and soil mainly due to farms and the use of fertilizers in agriculture on a massive scale. Consequently, the release of nitrates into groundwater not only causes environmental pollution, such as eutrophication, but also affects human health. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for nitrate in drinking
water is 10 mg L-1, so it is necessary to remove excess nitrate from drinking water.
Copper and its alloys have shown great potential for use in electrochemical reactions, particularly in the case of the electro-reduction of nitrates[1],[2]. 3D printing or Additive Manufacturing (AM) of metallic electrodes with various surface modifications could improve electrochemical applications by increasing the surface of the active area[3]. In this regard, powder bed fusion (PBF) systems are commonly used to 3D printed models using electron beam melting (EB-PBF) as the energy source.
In this work, copper electrodes fabricated by EB-PBF have been modified by electrochemical and thermal treatments and compared with copper 3D print no-modified and copper foil under the same conditions to be used as electrocatalysts for nitrate reduction to ammonia for its potential valorization as fertilizer. Thus, a double catalyst structure formed by a cuprous oxide on copper has been developed. By using different electrochemical techniques on copper modified 3D electrodes, more than 90% in nitrate reduction and conversion to ammonia up to 60% in less of 4 hours have been achieved.
Authors wish to thank to the IVACE (project reference IMDEEA /2023/26) and European Union (FEDER) for the financial support. The Electron Microscopy Service of the UPV (Universitat Politècnica de València) is gratefully acknowledged for help with FESEM and EDX characterization. Instituto de Tecnología Química is gratefully acknowledged for carrying out Raman Spectroscopy measurements.
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