Generating Defect-Rich Bismuth for Enhancing the Rate of Nitrogen Electroreduction to Ammonia

Yue Wang; Miao-Miao Shi; Di Bao; Fan-Lu Meng; Qi Zhang; Yi-Tong Zhou; Kai-Hua Liu; Yan Zhang; Jia-Zhi Wang; Zhi-Wen Chen; Da-Peng Liu; Zheng Jiang; Mi Luo; Lin Gu; Qing-Hua Zhang; Xing-Zhong Cao; Yao Yao; Min-Hua Shao; Yu Zhang; Xin-Bo Zhang; Jingguang G Chen; Jun-Min Yan; Qing Jiang

doi:10.1002/anie.201903969

Generating Defect-Rich Bismuth for Enhancing the Rate of Nitrogen Electroreduction to Ammonia

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Jul 8;58(28):9464-9469. doi: 10.1002/anie.201903969. Epub 2019 May 30.

Authors

Yue Wang¹, Miao-Miao Shi¹, Di Bao², Fan-Lu Meng¹, Qi Zhang², Yi-Tong Zhou¹, Kai-Hua Liu¹, Yan Zhang¹, Jia-Zhi Wang², Zhi-Wen Chen¹, Da-Peng Liu³, Zheng Jiang⁴, Mi Luo⁴, Lin Gu⁵, Qing-Hua Zhang⁵, Xing-Zhong Cao⁶, Yao Yao⁷, Min-Hua Shao⁷, Yu Zhang³, Xin-Bo Zhang², Jingguang G Chen⁸, Jun-Min Yan¹, Qing Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials, Ministry of Education and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, Jilin, P. R. China.
² State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, Jilin, P. R. China.
³ Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China.
⁴ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 20000, P. R. China.
⁵ Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, P. R. China.
⁶ Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, 999077, P. R. China.
⁸ Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA.

PMID: 31090132
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201903969

Abstract

The electrochemical N₂ fixation, which is far from practical application in aqueous solution under ambient conditions, is extremely challenging and requires a rational design of electrocatalytic centers. We observed that bismuth (Bi) might be a promising candidate for this task because of its weak binding with H adatoms, which increases the selectivity and production rate. Furthermore, we successfully synthesized defect-rich Bi nanoplates as an efficient noble-metal-free N₂ reduction electrocatalyst via a low-temperature plasma bombardment approach. When exclusively using ¹ H NMR measurements with N₂ gas as a quantitative testing method, the defect-rich Bi(110) nanoplates achieved a ¹⁵ NH₃ production rate of 5.453 μg mg_Bi ^-1 h^-1 and a Faradaic efficiency of 11.68 % at -0.6 V vs. RHE in aqueous solution at ambient conditions.

Keywords: bismuth nanosheets; defects; nitrogen reduction; non-noble-metals; quantitative NMR testing.

Abstract

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