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Spontaneous Atomic Ruthenium Doping in Mo 2 CT X MXene Defects Enhances Electrocatalytic Activity for the Nitrogen Reduction Reaction
Author(s) -
Peng Wei,
Luo Min,
Xu Xiandong,
Jiang Kang,
Peng Ming,
Chen Dechao,
Chan TingShan,
Tan Yongwen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.202001364
Subject(s) - faraday efficiency , catalysis , electrocatalyst , reversible hydrogen electrode , materials science , ruthenium , ammonia production , electrochemistry , atomic layer deposition , nitrogen , dissociation (chemistry) , ammonia , inorganic chemistry , electrode , nanotechnology , chemistry , working electrode , thin film , biochemistry , organic chemistry
The electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) process usually suffers extremely low Faradaic efficiency and ammonia yields due to sluggish NN dissociation. Herein, single‐atomic ruthenium modified Mo 2 CT X MXene nanosheets as an efficient electrocatalyst for nitrogen fixation at ambient conditions are reported. The catalyst achieves a Faradaic efficiency of 25.77% and ammonia yield rate of 40.57 µg h −1 mg −1 at ‐0.3 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.5 m K 2 SO 4 solution. Operando X‐ray absorption spectroscopy studies and density functional theory calculations reveal that single‐atomic Ru anchored on MXene nanosheets act as important electron back‐donation centers for N 2 activation, which can not only promote nitrogen adsorption and activation behavior of the catalyst, but also lower the thermodynamic energy barrier of the first hydrogenation step. This work opens up a promising avenue to manipulate catalytic performance of electrocatalysts utilizing an atomic‐level engineering strategy.