An Amorphous Noble-Metal-Free Electrocatalyst that Enables Nitrogen Fixation under Ambient Conditions

Abstract

N-2 fixation by the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) under ambient conditions is regarded as a potential approach to achieve NH3 production, which still heavily relies on the Haber-Bosch process at the cost of huge energy and massive production of CO2. A noble-metal-free Bi4V2O11/CeO2 hybrid with an amorphous phase (BVC-A) is used as the cathode for electrocatalytic NRR. The amorphous Bi4V2O11 contains significant defects, which play a role as active sites. The CeO2 not only serves as a trigger to induce the amorphous structure, but also establishes band alignment with Bi4V2O11 for rapid interfacial charge transfer. Remarkably, BVC-A shows outstanding electrocatalytic NRR performance with high average yield (NH3: 23.21 mu gh(-1)mg(cat.)(-1), Faradaic efficiency: 10.16%) under ambient conditions, which is superior to the Bi4V2O11/CeO2 hybrid with crystalline phase (BVC-C) counterpart.