Defective boron nitride nanosheets: an efficient non-metal catalyst for electrochemical reduction of NO to NH3

Abstract

Electrochemical NO-to-NH₃ reduction (NORR) offers an effective strategy to simultaneously realize polluted NO removal and valued ammonia production. Herein, defective BN nanosheets (D-BN) are firstly developed as a powerful non-metal catalyst for the NORR, which exhibits an NH₃-faradaic efficiency of 92.1% and an NH₃ yield rate of 192.4 μmol h⁻¹ cm⁻² at −0.7 V (RHE). Mechanistic investigations unravel that B-vacancies on D-BN are essential in activating and hydrogenating NO whilst restricting the competing H₂ evolution, rendering the high NORR activity and selectivity of D-BN.