Reductive nitrogen species activation via pulsed electrolysis: recent advances and future prospects

The electrochemical reduction of nitrogen species offers a sustainable route to mitigate environmental nitrogen pollution while enabling the production of value-added chemicals such as ammonia, hydroxylamine, and C–N coupled organonitrogen compounds. However, the practical implementation of conventional potentio-static methods is limited by poor product selectivity and competing hydrogen evolution. Pulsed electrolysis has emerged as a transformative strategy to address these challenges by synchronizing catalyst surface dynamics with reaction kinetics and microenvironmental changes. This mini-review highlights recent advances in pulsed electrolysis for nitrogen species reduction, with a particular emphasis on how dynamic potentials influence electrocatalyst modulation and the reaction microenvironment. Key mechanistic insights and cutting-edge research findings are discussed, followed by an outlook on current challenges and future directions toward scalable, energy-efficient nitrogen activation.