Nitrate is widely present in industrial wastewater， agricultural runoff， and groundwater， and its excessive discharge leads to severe water eutrophication and environmental pollution. The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction （NO₃RR） technology utilizes electrical energy to drive the directional conversion of nitrate to ammonia under mild conditions， featuring advantages such as a clean process， controllable reaction， and easy coupling with renewable energy， thus exhibiting promising application prospects. This review systematically summarizes the research progress in electrocatalytic nitrate reduction for ammonia synthesis. Starting with the reaction mechanism and performance evaluation system， the article focuses on analyzing the design strategies of noble metal， non-noble metal， and non-metallic catalysts， discusses the synergistic enhancement mechanisms of external field-assisted systems such as light and plasma， and comprehensively sorts out the key challenges faced by current research in terms of catalyst lifetime， reaction selectivity， and system energy consumption. Finally， the future development of electrocatalytic nitrate reduction technology is projected， including directions such as developing high-stability catalysts， optimizing reactor design， and promoting the integration of multi-field coupling systems， so as to provide new ideas for achieving efficient and low-carbon sustainable ammonia synthesis.

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Mechanism and performance evaluation of electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia

2.1 Reaction mechanism

2.2 Performance metrics

3 Catalysts for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia

3.1 Noble metal catalysts

3.2 Non-noble metal catalysts

3.3 Metal-free catalysts

4 Field-assisted electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia

4.1 Photo-electrocatalytic nitrate reduction

4.2 Plasma-assisted electrocatalytic nitrate reduction

4.3 Large-scale application of coupled electrocatalytic nitrate reduction for ammonia production

5 Conclusion and outlook