Issue 36, 2020

A spinel ferrite catalyst for efficient electroreduction of dinitrogen to ammonia

Abstract

Ambient electrocatalytic N2 reduction reaction (NRR) provides an eco-friendly way for artificial NH3 production, while an efficient NRR process requires active and stable electrocatalysts. In this communication, we exploit the spinel ferrite NiFe2O4 as a promising NRR catalyst. The developed NiFe2O4 nanocubes/reduced graphene oxide (NiFe2O4/RGO) exhibited an appealing NRR performance with an NH3 yield of 32.2 μg h−1 mg−1 and a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 9.8% at −0.5 V (RHE), as well as a high catalytic durability. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the surface Fe atoms serve as key NRR active sites for favorable N2 adsorption and H+ suppression. These findings may facilitate the understanding and exploration of Earth-abundant spinel ferrite catalysts for electrochemical dinitrogen fixation.

Graphical abstract: A spinel ferrite catalyst for efficient electroreduction of dinitrogen to ammonia

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
21 Jul 2020
Accepted
24 Aug 2020
First published
25 Aug 2020

Dalton Trans., 2020,49, 12559-12564

A spinel ferrite catalyst for efficient electroreduction of dinitrogen to ammonia

Y. Tian, X. Shao, M. Zhu, W. Liu, Z. Wei and K. Chu, Dalton Trans., 2020, 49, 12559 DOI: 10.1039/D0DT02560G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements