Thermal sculpting of nanoconfined single-atom cavities enables urea electrosynthesis with near-unity selectivity
Boxuan Yang, Yuxin Zeng, Lifeng Yin, Yunrong Dai, Qingsong Hua
Fertilizer production helps feed nearly half the world, but it consumes huge amounts of energy and creates carbon dioxide. This study turns waste gases and wastewater into fertilizer inside a space far smaller than a human hair is wide. What if the key to making urea selectively is not a new molecule, but a cavity barely two nanometers wide? This study uses heat to sculpt those tiny spaces around single copper atoms.