Electrolytic reduction of nitrate on copper and its binary composite electrodes

Copper electrode has a high catalytic activity for electrolytic reduction of nitrate with a drawback of high ammonia selectivity. This research aims to increase the nitrate reduction rate as well as selectivity to gaseous nitrogen by doping other metals. The experimental results showed that the first order kinetic constant for Cu80Ni20 and Cu80Pb20 was 0.50 and 0.54 h−1, which was five times more than Cu electrode of 0.10 h−1. Moreover, the selectivity to ammonia decreased from 76% to 63% & 61%, together with an elevated selectivity to gaseous nitrogen from 23% to 37% & 39%, respectively.