Bi nanodendrites for efficient electrocatalytic N2 fixation to NH3 under ambient conditions

Fengyi Wang; Xu Lv; Xiaojuan Zhu; Juan Du; Siyu Lu; Abdulmohsen Ali Alshehri; Khalid Ahmed Alzahrani; Baozhan Zheng; Xuping Sun

doi:10.1039/c9cc09803h

Bi nanodendrites for efficient electrocatalytic N₂ fixation to NH₃ under ambient conditions

Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Feb 18;56(14):2107-2110. doi: 10.1039/c9cc09803h. Epub 2020 Jan 24.

Authors

Fengyi Wang¹, Xu Lv¹, Xiaojuan Zhu², Juan Du¹, Siyu Lu³, Abdulmohsen Ali Alshehri⁴, Khalid Ahmed Alzahrani⁴, Baozhan Zheng¹, Xuping Sun²

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, Sichuan, China. zhengbaozhan@scu.edu.cn.
² Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, China. xpsun@uestc.edu.cn.
³ Green Catalysis Center and College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan, China.
⁴ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 31976988
DOI: 10.1039/c9cc09803h

Abstract

Electrochemical N₂ reduction has emerged as a sustainable and eco-friendly route for the artificial synthesis of NH₃ under ambient conditions, but active electrocatalysts are needed to drive the N₂ reduction reaction (NRR). Here, Bi nanodendrites are reported as an efficient NRR electrocatalyst for N₂ to NH₃ conversion with excellent selectivity. In 0.1 M HCl, this catalyst achieves a large NH₃ yield of 25.86 μg h^-1 mg^-1_cat. and a high faradaic efficiency of 10.8% at -0.60 V and -0.55 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode, respectively, with high electrochemical durability.