Ambient electrosynthesis of NH3 from N2 using Bi-doped CeO2 cube as electrocatalyst

Abstract

The synthesis of ammonia (NH3) from electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) under environmental conditions is a promising technology. Compared with the traditional artificial nitrogen fixation process by the Haber-Bosch process, electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) requires no harsh reaction conditions. In this work, we report that Bi-doped CeO2 nanocubes show high NRR activity as electrocatalysts. The NH3 yield of 17.83 μgh−1 mg−1cat. and the Faradaic Efficiency (FE) of 1.61% at −0.9 V are achieved in 0.1 M Na2SO4. The performance is much higher than that for the traditional CeO2 nanoparticles. The detailed analysis indicates that both the Bi doping and the cube morphology are critical for this encouraging NRR performance. The mechanism for improving NRR is further explored with first-principle calculations, demonstrating the importance of Bi-doping for performance enhancement.