Integrated Electrocatalyst Platform for Electroreduction of Oxyanions in Water

Abstract

Electrocatalysis offers a promising solution to remove harmful oxyanions from wastewater. However, the development of high-performance electrocatalysts is typically achieved using a trial-and-error method, and myriad materials need to be tested. Herein, we develop a systematic platform to develop electrocatalysts toward the electrochemical reduction of oxyanions in aqueous solution. This framework includes the liquid robot synthesis of electrocatalysts and electrochemical screening of the as-produced materials via cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry technique on those showing promising cyclic voltammetry results. For a case study, the synthesis and electrocatalytic performance toward the electroreduction of nitrate have been successfully validated on metal nanoparticles, of which the superior performance of copper has been identified. This result is in good agreement with the theoretical calculations, suggesting the effectiveness of the platform for the development of electrocatalysts for oxyanion reduction.