Bimetallic PdCu Nanocrystals Immobilized by Nitrogen-Containing Ordered Mesoporous Carbon for Electrocatalytic Denitrification

Issues of uniform incorporation of catalytic functional species with controllable sizes, shapes, compositions, and functions into porous carbon scaffolds remain significant challenges toward enriching and boosting performance. Here, we develop a straightforward approach that introduces dicyandiamide as a nitrogen source to chelate with metal species and combines with the surfactant-templating self-assembly method for the fabrication of highly dispersed catalysts anchored in nitrogen-containing ordered mesoporous carbon (NOMC). As a result, these functional catalyst (such as PdCu nanocrystals)-embedded NOMC composites manifest a synergistic catalytic capability for the electroreduction of nitrate in neutral electrolyte, with more than 90% nitrate removed under an ultra-low concentration of 100 ppm and a high nitrogen selectivity of 60% after 10 repeated tests.