Single‐Atom Gold Isolated Onto Nanoporous MoSe<sub>2</sub> for Boosting Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction
Dechao Chen, Mingsheng Luo, Shoucong Ning, Jiao Lan, Wei Peng, Ying‐Rui Lu, Ting‐Shan Chan, Yongwen Tan
Abstract
Abstract The electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) provides a promising strategy to convert the abundant but inert N 2 into NH 3 using renewable energy. Herein, single‐atom Au isolated onto bicontinous nanoporous MoSe 2 (np‐MoSe 2 ) is designed as an electrocatalyst for achieving highly efficient NRR catalysis, which exhibits a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 37.82% and an NH 3 production rate of 30.83 µg h −1 mg −1 at –0.3 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in 0.1 m Na 2 SO 4 under ambient conditions. Experimental and theoretical investigations reveal that the introduction of single Au atoms onto np‐MoSe 2 optimizes the adsorption of NRR intermediates while suppressing the competing HER, thus providing an energetic‐favorable process for enhancing the catalytic selectivity toward electrochemical N 2 reduction into NH 3 .