Designing a flower-shaped ZnS/CoS heterojunction for efficient electroreduction of N2 to NH3

Abstract

The electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is a highly promising process for synthesizing ammonia and holds great potential to replace the traditional Haber–Bosch process. Here, we report a novel flower-shaped ZnS/CoS composite electrocatalyst for the NRR. Remarkably, the ZnS/CoS-105 heterojunction catalyst achieved an NH₃ yield rate of 20.42 μg h⁻¹ mg_cat.⁻¹ and a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 11.83% at −0.45 V VS. RHE in an aqueous 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ solution. In addition, ZnS/CoS-105 showed remarkable stability (up to 24 h) for the NRR process.