Issue 52, 2019

Ambient electrochemical N2 reduction to NH3 under alkaline conditions enabled by a layered K2Ti4O9 nanobelt

Abstract

Using electrocatalytic N2 reduction to make NH3 is considered to be an attractive environmentally-friendly alternative to the Haber–Bosch process, which is rather energy-intensive and has heavy CO2 emissions. However, only limited success has been achieved in identifying metal oxides as effective electrocatalysts for the N2 reduction reaction (NRR) under alkaline conditions. In this communication, we report that a K2Ti4O9 nanobelt is able to effectively electrocatalyze the ambient NRR for N2-to-NH3 fixation at alkaline pH. When tested in 0.1 M KOH, a high NH3 yield of 22.88 μg h−1 mg−1cat. and a faradaic efficiency of 5.87% were attained. Moreover, K2Ti4O9 also demonstrates good selectivity and high electrochemical stability for NH3 formation.

Graphical abstract: Ambient electrochemical N2 reduction to NH3 under alkaline conditions enabled by a layered K2Ti4O9 nanobelt

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
28 Mar 2019
Accepted
30 May 2019
First published
31 May 2019

Chem. Commun., 2019,55, 7546-7549

Ambient electrochemical N2 reduction to NH3 under alkaline conditions enabled by a layered K2Ti4O9 nanobelt

D. Wu, H. Wang, H. Huang, R. Zhang, L. Ji, H. Chen, Y. Luo, J. You, D. Tang, Z. Zhang and X. Sun, Chem. Commun., 2019, 55, 7546 DOI: 10.1039/C9CC02409C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements