Spectroelectrochemical insight into copper cobalt catalysts for CO₂ and nitrite co-electroreduction to urea
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(Published version)
Date
2026
Authors
Ramadhany, P.
Trần-Phú, T.
Yuwono, J.A.
Hocking, R.K.
Ma, Z.
Chau Ta, X.M.
Kumar, P.
Gunawan, D.
Johannessen, B.
Tricoli, A.
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Journal article
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Nature Communications, 2026; 17(1):1776-1-1776-16
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Putri Ramadhany, Thành Trần-Phú, Jodie A. Yuwono, Rosalie K. Hocking, Zhipeng Ma, Xuan Minh Chau Ta, Priyank Kumar, Denny Gunawan, Bernt Johannessen, Antonio Tricoli, Alexandr N. Simonov, Rose Amal & Rahman Daiyan
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Abstract
Electrochemical CO₂ and nitrite co-reduction provides a sustainable urea synthesis route but remains limited by low selectivity and an undecided C–N coupling mechanism. Here, we report co-sputtered bimetallic Cu–Co catalysts that facilitate urea formation via a tandem relay mechanism. The optimal Cu:Co ratio of 1:1 achieves a urea yield rate of 61 ± 6 mmol h¹⁻gcat¹⁻ at –1.2 V vs. RHE under neutral pH, emphasizing the importance of proton balance in sustaining proton-coupled electron transfer. In situ synchrotron-based infrared and Raman spectroscopy monitor the dynamic evolution of *CO, *NH₂, and C‒N intermediates. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates the structural stability of metallic Cu and Co active sites. Density functional theory calculations suggest that *COOH + *NH₂ coupling initiates urea pathway, with *NH₂CO formation as the potential-determining step. This study integrates rational catalyst design and in situ spectroelectrochemical analysis to advance understanding of electrochemical C–N coupling for urea synthesis.
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published online 17 January 2026
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© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.