Industrial-Scale Electrosynthesis of Amino Acids from the Air via a Molecular Ligand-Engineered Bismuth Catalyst

Abstract

Electrosynthesis of amino acids from air redefines pathways for accessing the fundamental molecular building blocks of life, yet it suffers from an intractable activity-selectivity trade-off due to kinetic mismatches across multistep reactions, especially in one-pot systems. Here, we report a molecular ligand-engineered bismuth catalyst (L-Bi) prepared via in situ electroreduction of bismuth metal–organic frameworks, achieving a record 93% Faradaic efficiency for glycine synthesis from simulated plasma-oxidized air and glyoxylic acid at a current density of 100 mA cm–2. In situ spectroscopy and theoretical calculations reveal that the preserved coordinated ligands engineer the electronic and spatial environment of Bi active sites, lowering the product desorption barrier (the rate-determining step), and enriching edge-active sites, thus leading to highly efficient and selective formation of amino acids at high current density. This work provides a solution to the long-standing electrocatalysis dilemma, establishing a generalizable paradigm for converting air into value-added organonitrogen compounds, which is critical to global nitrogen circularity.