2021/02/15 by Yan Li, Junwei Li, Junheng Huang +9 · 1 citation
Chemical Engineering · Chemistry · Energy · #Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques #Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction #Nanomaterials for catalytic reactions
paper · doi:10.1002/anie.202100526
openalex publication_date 2021/02/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) plays a vital role for next‐generation electrochemical energy conversion technologies. However, the NRR kinetics is still limited by the sluggish hydrogenation process on noble‐metal‐free electrocatalyst. Herein, we report the rational design and synthesis of a hybrid catalyst with atomic iron sites anchored on a N,O‐doped porous carbon (Fe SA ‐NO‐C) matrix of an inverse opal structure, leading to a remarkably high NH 3 yield rate of 31.9 μg h −1 mg −1 cat. and Faradaic efficiency of 11.8 % at −0.4 V for NRR electrocatalysis, outperformed almost all previously reported atomically dispersed metal‐nitrogen‐carbon catalysts. Theoretical calculations revealed that the observed high NRR catalytic activity for the Fe SA ‐NO‐C catalyst stemmed mainly from the optimized charge‐transfer between the adjacent O and Fe atoms homogenously distributed on the porous carbon support, which could not only significantly facilitate the transportation of N 2 and ions but also effectively decrease the binding energy between the isolated Fe atom and *N 2 intermediate and the thermodynamic Gibbs free energy of the rate‐determining step (*N 2 → *NNH).