P-doped WO3 flowers fixed on a TiO2 nanofibrous membrane for enhanced electroreduction of N2

Abstract

Herein, nanoneedle-constructed WO₃ flowers are prepared by hydrothermal synthesis, which are characterized by a large surface area leading to abundant active sites. Additionally, P doping is employed as an effective way to generate charge imbalance and induce more empty d-orbitals around W⁶⁺, thus facilitating the adsorption of N₂ molecules. Moreover, a flexible TiO₂ nanofibrous membrane is used as an electrocatalytically active matrix to fix the P-doped, nanoneedle-constructed WO₃ flowers. The hierarchically structured P-WO₃@TiO₂ nanofibrous membrane acts as a self-supported electrocatalyst, presenting an enhanced ammonia yield (6.54 × 10⁻¹⁰ mol s⁻¹ cm⁻²) and faradaic efficiency (17.5%) compared to the undoped counterpart.