The design of electrocatalysts with enhanced adsorption and activation of nitrogen (N₂) is critical for boosting the electrochemical N₂ reduction (ENR). Herein, we developed an efficient strategy to facilitate N₂ adsorption and activation for N₂ electroreduction into ammonia (NH₃) by vacancy engineering of [email protected] structured [email protected]₂ nanoparticles (NPs). We found that the ultrathin amorphous SnO₂ shell with enriched oxygen vacancies was conducive to adsorb N₂ as well as promoted the N₂ activation, meanwhile the metallic Au core ensured the good electrical conductivity for accelerating electrons transport during the electrochemical N₂ reduction reaction, synergistically boosting the N₂ electroreduction catalysis. As confirmed by the ¹⁵N-labeling and controlled experiments, the [email protected] [email protected] SnO₂ NPs with abundant oxygen vacancies show the best performance for N₂ electroreduction with the NH₃ yield rate of 21.9 μg h^-1 mg^-1_cat and faradaic efficiency of 15.2% at -0.2 V_RHE, which surpass the [email protected] SnO₂ NPs, individual Au NPs and all reported Au-based catalysts for ENR.

设计具有增强的氮 (N ₂ ) 吸附和活化的电催化剂对于促进电化学 N ₂还原 (ENR) 至关重要。在此，我们开发了一种有效的策略，通过 [email protected] 结构化 [email protected] ₂纳米粒子 (NPs)的空位工程促进 N ₂吸附和活化以将 N ₂电还原为氨 (NH _{3 )。}我们发现富氧空位的超薄非晶SnO _{2壳有利于吸附N 2}并促进N ₂活化，同时金属Au核确保良好的导电性以加速电化学N ₂还原反应中的电子传输，协同促进N ₂电还原催化。正如¹⁵ N-标记和对照实验所证实的那样，具有丰富氧空位的 [email protected] [email protected] SnO ₂ NPs 显示出最佳的 N ₂电还原性能，NH ₃产率为 21.9 μg h ^-1 mg ^{- 1} _cat和法拉第效率在 -0.2 V _RHE时为 15.2% ，超过了 [email protected] SnO ₂NP、单个 Au NP 和所有报道的用于 ENR 的 Au 基催化剂。