Coupling a Main-Group Metal with a Transition Metal to Create Biatom Catalysts for Nitric Oxide Reduction
Yanmei Zang, Qian Wu, Shuhua Wang, Baibiao Huang, Ying Dai, Yandong Ma
Abstract
Developing efficient biatom catalysts for renewable energies is becoming increasingly worthwhile, yet it remains a great challenge. Herein, by means of large-scale first-principles calculations, we report a design principle of coupling main-group metal with transition metal (TM) to explore biatom catalysts for nitric oxide reduction reaction (NORR), namely, $\mathrm{Mg}/\mathrm{Al}/\mathrm{Ga}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{TM}$ dimers anchored on nitrogen-doped graphene. We propose a comprehensive screening strategy to recognize promising candidates of such catalysts. Following this strategy, we screen $\mathrm{Mg}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{Ni}@\mathrm{NC}$ and $\mathrm{Ga}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{Cr}@\mathrm{NC}$ out of 24 candidates as promising biatom catalysts with high activity and selectivity for direct $\mathrm{NO}$-$\mathrm{to}$-${\mathrm{NH}}_{3}$ conversion. Such high catalytic activity is related to the synergetic interatomic interactions. Moreover, based on the interplay between main-group metal and TM centers, we propose a ``donation-backdonation-redonation'' mechanism to characterize $\mathrm{NO}$ activation. In addition, $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{s/p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}d}$ is identified as an efficient quantitative descriptor to prereduce the number of such catalyst candidates. Our work opens a strategy for rational design of biatom catalysts toward NORR.