Issue 92, 2018

Ambient NH3 synthesis via electrochemical reduction of N2 over cubic sub-micron SnO2 particles

Abstract

Electrochemical N2-to-NH3 fixation under ambient conditions is emerging as a promising alternative to the energy-intensive and CO2-emitting Haber–Bosch process. However, this process involves difficulty in N2 activation, underlining the demand of electrocatalysts for the N2 reduction reaction (NRR). In this work, cubic sub-micron SnO2 particles on carbon cloth (SnO2/CC) are proposed as an efficient NRR electrocatalyst for ambient N2 conversion to NH3 with excellent selectivity. Electrochemical tests reveal that SnO2/CC attains a large NH3 yield of 1.47 × 10−10 mol s−1 cm−2 at −0.8 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a high Faradaic efficiency of 2.17% at −0.7 V vs. RHE in 0.1 M Na2SO4, outperforming most reported aqueous-based NRR electrocatalysts. Notably, it also shows strong electrochemical stability.

Graphical abstract: Ambient NH3 synthesis via electrochemical reduction of N2 over cubic sub-micron SnO2 particles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
10 Aug 2018
Accepted
12 Oct 2018
First published
12 Oct 2018

Chem. Commun., 2018,54, 12966-12969

Ambient NH3 synthesis via electrochemical reduction of N2 over cubic sub-micron SnO2 particles

L. Zhang, X. Ren, Y. Luo, X. Shi, A. M. Asiri, T. Li and X. Sun, Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 12966 DOI: 10.1039/C8CC06524A

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