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An Amorphous Noble‐Metal‐Free Electrocatalyst that Enables Nitrogen Fixation under Ambient Conditions
Author(s) -
Lv Chade,
Yan Chunshuang,
Chen Gang,
Ding Yu,
Sun Jingxue,
Zhou Yansong,
Yu Guihua
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201801538
Subject(s) - faraday efficiency , electrocatalyst , amorphous solid , noble metal , redox , materials science , chemical engineering , nitrogen , electrochemistry , metal , chemistry , electrode , inorganic chemistry , crystallography , metallurgy , organic chemistry , engineering
N 2 fixation by the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) under ambient conditions is regarded as a potential approach to achieve NH 3 production, which still heavily relies on the Haber–Bosch process at the cost of huge energy and massive production of CO 2 . A noble‐metal‐free Bi 4 V 2 O 11 /CeO 2 hybrid with an amorphous phase (BVC‐A) is used as the cathode for electrocatalytic NRR. The amorphous Bi 4 V 2 O 11 contains significant defects, which play a role as active sites. The CeO 2 not only serves as a trigger to induce the amorphous structure, but also establishes band alignment with Bi 4 V 2 O 11 for rapid interfacial charge transfer. Remarkably, BVC‐A shows outstanding electrocatalytic NRR performance with high average yield (NH 3 : 23.21 μg h −1 mg −1 cat. , Faradaic efficiency: 10.16 %) under ambient conditions, which is superior to the Bi 4 V 2 O 11 /CeO 2 hybrid with crystalline phase (BVC‐C) counterpart.