Nanoporous NiSb to Enhance Nitrogen Electroreduction via Tailoring Competitive Adsorption Sites

• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202101126
• Publication Date: 2021-09-04T08:56:22Z
• Authors: Guilan Fan; Wence Xu; Jinhan Li; Jia‐Liang Chen; Meng Yu; Youxuan Ni; Shengli Zhu; Xun‐Cheng Su; Fangyi Cheng
• Keywords: Nanoporous; Reversible hydrogen electrode

Ambient nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is attracting extensive interest but still suffers from sluggish kinetics owing to competitive rapid hydrogen evolution and difficult activation. Herein, nanoporous NiSb alloy reported as an efficient electrocatalyst for N2 fixation, achieving a high ammonia yield rate of 56.9 µg h-1 mg-1 with Faradaic efficiency 48.0%. Density functional theory calculations reveal that in alloy, Ni favors hydrogenation while the neighboring Sb separates active sites proton adsorption, which optimizes adsorption/desorption intermediates enables energetically favorable NRR pathway. This work indicates promising electrocatalytic application alloys 3d p block metals toward provides intriguing strategy enhance inert molecules by restraining adsorption.