Insights into oxygen vacancy enhanced WO3 nanosheets for electrocatalytic nitrogen oxidation to nitrate

Abstract

In this work, the WO3 nanosheets with rich oxygen vacancy (Vo-WO3 NSs) was prepared as an effective catalyst for electrochemical N2 fixation. Benefiting from the rich oxygen vacancy, the Vo-WO3 NSs provide abundant active sites for boosting the adsorption and activation of N2. As a result, the Vo-WO3 NSs achieved a Faradaic efficiency of 10.01% for NO3- at 1.5 V vs. RHE. Notably, at 1.9 V vs. RHE, the Vo-WO3 NSs reached a remarkable NO3- yield rate of 142.03 μg h-1 mgcat.-1, which was 1.4 times than that (100.84 μg h-1 mgcat.-1) of Pristine WO3 NSs. Furthermore, the catalyst also exhibited high electrochemical stability and selectivity.