Optimizing Intermediate Adsorption over PdM (M=Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) Bimetallene for Boosted Nitrate Electroreduction to Ammonia.

Abstract

Electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonia (NO3RR) is a promising and eco-friendly strategy for ammonia production. However, the sluggish kinetics of the eight-electron transfer process and poor mechanistic understanding strongly impedes its application. To unveil the internal laws, herein, a library of Pd-based bimetallene with various transition metal dopants (PdM (M=Fe, Co, Ni, Cu)) are screened to learn their structure-activity relationship towards NO3RR. The ultra-thin structure of metallene greatly facilitates the exposure of active sites, and the transition metals dopants break the electronic balance and upshift its d-band center, thus optimizing intermediates adsorption. The anisotropic electronic characteristics of these transition metals make the NO3RR activity in the order of PdCu>PdCo≈PdFe>PdNi>Pd, and a record-high NH3 yield rate of 295 mg h-1 mgcat -1 along with Faradaic efficiency of 90.9 % is achieved in neutral electrolyte on PdCu bimetallene. Detailed studies further reveal that the moderate N-species (*NO3 and *NO2) adsorption ability, enhanced *NO activation, and reduced HER activity facilitate the NH3 production. We believe our results will give a systematic guidance to the future design of NO3RR catalysts.