A Generalized Surface Chalcogenation Strategy for Boosting the Electrochemical N2 Fixation of Metal Nanocrystals

© 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.). - 1998. - 32(2020), 24 vom: 04. Juni, Seite e2001267
1. Verfasser: Yang, Chengyong (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Huang, Bolong, Bai, Shuxing, Feng, Yonggang, Shao, Qi, Huang, Xiaoqing
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2020
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Schlagworte:Journal Article metal nanocrystals nitrogen reduction reaction rhodium surface chalcogenation universality
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:© 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is a promising process relative to energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. While conventional electrocatalysts underperform with sluggish paths, achieving dissociation of N2 brings the key challenge for enhancing NRR. This study proposes an effective surface chalcogenation strategy to improve the NRR performance of pristine metal nanocrystals (NCs). Surprisingly, the NH3 yield and Faraday efficiency (FE) (175.6 ± 23.6 mg h-1 g-1 Rh and 13.3 ± 0.4%) of Rh-Se NCs is significantly enhanced by 16 and 15 times, respectively. Detailed investigations show that the superior activity and high FE are attributed to the effect of surface chalcogenation, which not only can decrease the apparent activation energy, but also inhibit the occurrence of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) process. Theoretical calculations reveal that the strong interface strain effect within coreshell system induces a critical redox inversion, resulting in a rather low valence state of Rh and Se surface sites. Such strong correlation indicates an efficient electron-transfer minimizing NRR barrier. Significantly, the surface chalcogenation strategy is general, which can extend to create other NRR metal electrocatalysts with enhanced performance. This strategy open a new avenue for future NH3 production for breakthrough in the bottleneck of NRR
Beschreibung:Date Revised 30.09.2020
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE
ISSN:1521-4095
DOI:10.1002/adma.202001267