- Title
- Transition metal aluminum boride as a new candidate for ambient-condition electrochemical ammonia synthesis
- Creator
- Fu, Yang; Richardson, Peter; Li, Kangkang; Yu, Hai; Yu, Bing; Donne, Scott; Kisi, Eric; Ma, Tianyi
- Relation
- ARC.DE150101306 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE150101306 | ARC|LP160100927 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP160100927
- Relation
- Nano-Micro Letters Vol. 12, Issue 1, no. 65
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-0400-z
- Publisher
- SpringerOpen
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Achieving more meaningful N₂ conversion by reducing the energy input and carbon footprint is now being investigated through a method of N2 fixation instead of the Haber-Bosch process. Unfortunately, the electrochemical N₂ reduction reaction (NRR) method as a rising approach currently still shows low selectivity (Faradaic efficiency < 10%) and high-energy consumption [applied potential at least - 0.2V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)]. Here, the role of molybdenum aluminum boride single crystals, belonging to a family of ternary transition metal aluminum borides known as MAB phases, is reported for the electrochemical NRR for the first time, at a low applied potential (- 0.05V versus RHE) under ambient conditions and in alkaline media. Due to the unique nano-laminated crystal structure of the MAB phase, these inexpensive materials have been found to exhibit excellent electrocatalytic performances (NH₃ yield: 9.2μgh⁻¹cm⁻²mg cat.⁻¹, Faradaic efficiency: 30.1%) at the low overpotential, and to display a high chemical stability and sustained catalytic performance. In conjunction, further mechanism studies indicate B and Al as main-group metals show a highly selective affinity to N₂ due to the strong interaction between the B 2p/Al 3p band and the N 2p orbitals, while Mo exhibits specific catalytic activity toward the subsequent reduction reaction. Overall, the MAB-phase catalyst under the synergy of the elements within ternary compound can suppress the hydrogen evolution reaction and achieve enhanced NRR performance. The significance of this work is to provide a promising candidate in the future synthesis of ammonia.
- Subject
- MAB phase; N₂ reduction reaction; electrocatalysis; nanostructure
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1417799
- Identifier
- uon:37255
- Identifier
- ISSN:2311-6706
- Rights
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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