ACS Nano（IF:17.3）,January 12, 2026

The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) is often hindered by sluggish kinetics, primarily due to the challenging adsorption and activation of the key intermediate *NO, widely recognized as the rate-determining step. Rational engineering of active sites to modulate *NO binding and facilitate its hydrogenation is therefore essential yet remains a great challenge. Here, we report the design of topologically confined ultrafine MoC/Fe2O3 heterojunctions embedded within interconnected porous carbon nanofibers (Mo1Fe1.5/CNF) via interfacial confinement engineering. This architecture yields a high density of localized relay catalytic sites characterized by Mo­(IV)–O-Fe linkages. The resulting heterojunctions exhibit abundant oxygen vacancies and an enriched Mo­(IV) population, enabling synergistic nitrate adsorption and *NO activation through interfacial charge redistribution and delocalization. The optimized Mo1Fe1.5/CNF catalyst achieves an excellent NH3 yield of 38.49 mg h–1 mgcat–1 and a Faradaic efficiency of 99.4% at −1.2 V vs RHE, with stable performance over 10 operational cycles and 50 h of continuous electrolysis. Near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations collectively showcase that *NO preferentially adsorbs on Mo­(IV) sites adjacent to oxygen-vacancy-rich Fe2O3, with the interfacial Mo–O–Fe motifs obviously lowering the hydrogenation energy barrier of *NO (∼0.32 eV).

 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c20626