Nitrogen-coordinated single Fe sites for efficient electrocatalytic N2 fixation in neutral media

By Fang Lü, Shunzheng Zhao, R. Guo, Jia He, Xianyun Peng, Haihong Bao, Jiantao Fu, Lili Han, Gaocan Qi, Jun Luo and 2 more. Nano Energy, 2019

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Abstract Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) for NH3 generation under ambient conditions presents a promising alternative to the conventional Haber–Bosch process. Here, we report a Fe single-atom catalyst for ambient electrochemical NH3 synthesis. This catalyst achieves high Faradaic efficiency (18.6 ± 0.8%) and NH3 yield rate (62.9 ± 2.7 μg h−1 mgcat.−1) in neutral aqueous electrolyte at room temperature and −0.4 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Furthermore, this catalyst exhibits a negligible activity decay during electrolysis for 24 h. X-ray absorption fine structure analyses and theoretical calculations reveal that atomically dispersed single Fe species are stabilized by N in Fe–N4 configuration, which is favorable for N2 activation. This work opens new opportunities for developing advanced single atomic site catalysts for NH3 synthesis via NRR.

Subfields: Catalysis, Organic Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/78ed2e2e96f95fb5ff6c9d77e350c19423e50b26