Atomically dispersed Au1 catalyst towards efficient electrochemical synthesis of ammonia

Xiaoqian Wang; Wenyu Wang; Man Qiao; Geng Wu; Wenxing Chen; Tongwei Yuan; Qian Xu; Min Chen; Yan Zhang; Xin Wang; Jing Wang; Jingjie Ge; Xun Hong; Yafei Li; Yuen Wu; Yadong Li

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2018.07.005

Atomically dispersed Au₁ catalyst towards efficient electrochemical synthesis of ammonia

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2018 Oct 15;63(19):1246-1253. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2018.07.005. Epub 2018 Jul 10.

Authors

Xiaoqian Wang¹, Wenyu Wang¹, Man Qiao², Geng Wu¹, Wenxing Chen³, Tongwei Yuan⁴, Qian Xu⁵, Min Chen¹, Yan Zhang¹, Xin Wang¹, Jing Wang¹, Jingjie Ge¹, Xun Hong¹, Yafei Li², Yuen Wu⁶, Yadong Li³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
² Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Centre of Biomedical Functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
³ Department of Chemistry and Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterial Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁴ NEST Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
⁵ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230029, China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. Electronic address: yuenwu@ustc.edu.cn.

PMID: 36658862
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2018.07.005

Abstract

Tremendous efforts have been devoted to explore energy-efficient strategies of ammonia synthesis to replace Haber-Bosch process which accounts for 1.4% of the annual energy consumption. In this study, atomically dispersed Au₁ catalyst is synthesized and applied in electrochemical synthesis of ammonia under ambient conditions. A high NH₄⁺ Faradaic efficiency of 11.1% achieved by our Au₁ catalyst surpasses most of reported catalysts under comparable conditions. Benefiting from efficient atom utilization, an NH₄⁺ yield rate of 1,305 μg h^-1 mg_Au^-1 has been reached, which is roughly 22.5 times as high as that by supported Au nanoparticles. We also demonstrate that by employing our Au₁ catalyst, NH₄⁺ can be electrochemically produced directly from N₂ and H₂ with an energy utilization rate of 4.02 mmol kJ^-1. Our study provides a possibility of replacing the Haber-Bosch process with environmentally benign and energy-efficient electrochemical strategies.

Keywords: Electrocatalysis; Haber–Bosch process; Metal single sites; NH(3) synthesis; Nitrogen reduction.