Hexagonal boron nitride nanosheet for effective ambient N2 fixation to NH3

• Published in: Nano research Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 919 - 924
• Main Authors: Zhang, Ya, Du, Huitong, Ma, Yongjun, Ji, Lei, Guo, Haoran, Tian, Ziqi, Chen, Hongyu, Huang, Hong, Cui, Guanwei, Asiri, Abdullah M., Qu, Fengli, Chen, Liang, Sun, Xuping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Tsinghua University Press 01.04.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Ammonia; Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Boron; Boron nitride; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Catalysts; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Density functional theory; Electrocatalysts; Electrochemistry; Fixation; Haber Bosch process; Industrial production; Materials Science; Nanosheets; Nanotechnology; Nitrogen fixation; Nitrogenation; Research Article; electrosynthesis; boron nitride nanosheet; ambient conditions; density functional theory; reduction reaction; NH; N
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-019-2323-x

Industrial production of NH 3 from N 2 and H 2 significantly relies on Haber–Bosch process, which suffers from high energy consume and CO 2 emission. As a sustainable and environmentally-benign alternative process, electrochemical artificial N 2 fixation at ambient conditions, however, is highly required efficient electrocatalysts. In this study, we demonstrate that hexagonal boron nitride nanosheet (h-BNNS) is able to electrochemically catalyze N 2 to NH 3 . In acidic solution, h-BNNS catalyst attains a high NH 3 formation rate of 22.4 μg·h –1 ·mg –1 cat . and a high Faradic efficiency of 4.7% at–0.75 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, with excellent stability and durability. Density functional theory calculations reveal that unsaturated boron at the edge site can activate inert N 2 molecule and significantly reduce the energy barrier for NH 3 formation.