Generating Defect-Rich Bismuth for Enhancing the Rate of Nitrogen Electroreduction to Ammonia

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201903969

The electrochemical N₂ fixation, which is far from practical application in aqueous solution under ambient conditions, is extremely challenging and requires a rational design of electrocatalytic centers. We observed that bismuth (Bi) might be a promising candidate for this task because of its weak binding with H adatoms, which increases the selectivity and production rate. Furthermore, we successfully synthesized defect-rich Bi nanoplates as an efficient noble-metal-free N₂ reduction electrocatalyst via a low-temperature plasma bombardment approach. When exclusively using ¹H NMR measurements with N₂ gas as a quantitative testing method, the defect-rich Bi(110) nanoplates achieved a ¹⁵NH₃ production rate of 5.453 μg mg_Bi^?1 h^?1 and a Faradaic efficiency of 11.68 % at ?0.6 V vs. RHE in aqueous solution at ambient conditions.