SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE
YF3: a nanoflower-like catalyst for efficient nitrogen fixation to ammonia under ambient conditions†
Abstract
Ammonia as a vital chemical is not only indispensable to agriculture but also crucial to some energy devices like fuel cells. However, conventional ammonia production remains energy-intensive and environmentally hostile, and thus electrochemical synthesis of ammonia under mild conditions receives increasing attention. Herein, we report nanoflower-like yttrium fluoride (YF3) as a high-efficiency electrocatalyst for the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) for the synthesis of ammonia. Such a catalyst exhibits an ammonia yield rate of 15.5 μg h−1 mgcat−1 and a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 26.2% in 0.1 M Na2SO4, and also shows excellent selectivity and stability. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that electrons transfer from the N![[triple bond, length as m-dash]](https://www.rsc.org/images/entities/char_e002.gif)
N bond to N–Y and N–H bonds, and the activation of N2 molecules promotes the adsorption of H atoms.
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