Interfacial engineering of hydrophobic octadecanethiol/Pd metallene toward electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction

Abstract

In this work, we propose the modification of ultrathin and wrinkled Pd metallene by hydrophobic octadecanethiol (Pdene@C18) via Pd–S bonds for the nitrogen reduction reaction. The hydrophobic self-assembled monolayer C18 can effectively capture more N₂ and inhibit the hydrogen evolution reaction. As a result, a high NH₃ yield and Faraday efficiency of 27.97 μg h⁻¹ mg_cat.⁻¹ and 14.29% are achieved for Pdene@C18 under neutral conditions, respectively, highlighting the modification of hydrophobic monolayers for efficient nitrogen electro-reduction to ammonia.