Pressurized N2 directly fed to the RuAu/CeO1.76 catalyst porous electrode in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer favoring electrochemical NH3 production

Abstract

The limited N₂ solubility in the present aqueous electrolyte critically restricts the selectivity and activity of environment-friendly electrochemical NH₃ production at high current density. Here we developed a high-performance electrolyzer for the electrochemical N₂ reduction reaction (eNRR) using amorphous RuAu clusters anchored on CeO_1.88 nanorods with rich oxygen vacancies (OVs) as the catalyst and a proton exchange membrane (PEM) as the solid-state electrolyte, in which N₂ is directly delivered to the electrode across a gas diffusion layer. The PEM electrolyzer achieved a remarkable NH₃ yield rate of 185.53 μg mg⁻¹ h⁻¹ at −0.3 V vs. RHE under an applied N₂ pressure of 4 bar, which is 5 times higher than that in aqueous electrolyte.