The electrocatalytic reductive amination (ERA) provides a pretty option to make organonitrogen chemical compounds from renewable feedstock. Right here, we report carbon nanotube (CNT) as an efficient catalyst for the ERA of biomass-derivable α-keto acids into amino acids utilizing NH3 because the nitrogen supply. By a facile ball milling (BM) remedy, the intrinsic defects within the CNTs had been elevated whereas the electrocatalytic exercise of CNTs changing 2-ketoglutaric acid into glutamic acid was enhanced by roughly seven instances. A excessive Faradaic effectivity (FE) of ~90% with a corresponding glutamic acid formation fee as much as 180.9 mmol·g−1cat·h−1 was achieved, and ~60% molar yield of glutamic acid was obtained after 8 h of electrolysis. Electrokinetic analyses point out that the BM-CNTs catalysed ERA reveals first-order dependences on the substrate and NH3, with a rate-determining step (RDS) involving the primary electron switch. Following this protocol, various amino acids had been ready with reasonable to excessive FEs and formation charges. Considerably, we synthesised lengthy carbon chain amino acids, which usually face decrease yields utilizing the present strategies.