Issue 41, 2019

WO3 nanosheets rich in oxygen vacancies for enhanced electrocatalytic N2 reduction to NH3

Abstract

The Haber–Bosch process for industrial-scale NH3 production suffers from harsh conditions and serious CO2 release. Electrochemical N2 reduction is an alternative approach to synthesize NH3 under ambient conditions, but it requires highly-efficient electrocatalysts for the N2 reduction reaction (NRR). In this Communication, we demonstrate that WO3 nanosheets rich in oxygen vacancies (R-WO3 NSs) exhibit greatly enhanced NRR performances. In 0.1 M HCl, such R-WO3 NSs achieve a large NH3 yield of 17.28 μg h−1 mgcat.−1 and a high faradaic efficiency of 7.0% at −0.3 V vs. a reversible hydrogen electrode, much superior to the WO3 nanosheets deficient in oxygen vacancies (6.47 μg h−1 mgcat.−1 and 1.02%). Remarkably, R-WO3 NSs also show high electrochemical stability.

Graphical abstract: WO3 nanosheets rich in oxygen vacancies for enhanced electrocatalytic N2 reduction to NH3

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
30 apr 2019
Accepted
10 jun 2019
First published
10 jun 2019

Nanoscale, 2019,11, 19274-19277

WO3 nanosheets rich in oxygen vacancies for enhanced electrocatalytic N2 reduction to NH3

W. Kong, R. Zhang, X. Zhang, L. Ji, G. Yu, T. Wang, Y. Luo, X. Shi, Y. Xu and X. Sun, Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 19274 DOI: 10.1039/C9NR03678D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements