Enhancing Green Ammonia Electrosynthesis Through Tuning Sn Vacancies in Sn-Based MXene/MAX Hybrids
Xinyu Dai, Zhenyi Du, Ying Sun, Ping Chen, Xiaoguang Duan, Junjun Zhang, Hui Li, Yang Fu, Baohua Jia, Lei Zhang, Wenhui Fang, Jieshan Qiu, Tianyi Ma
Abstract
Abstract Renewable energy driven N 2 electroreduction with air as nitrogen source holds great promise for realizing scalable green ammonia production. However, relevant out-lab research is still in its infancy. Herein, a novel Sn-based MXene/MAX hybrid with abundant Sn vacancies, Sn@Ti 2 CT X /Ti 2 SnC–V, was synthesized by controlled etching Sn@Ti 2 SnC MAX phase and demonstrated as an efficient electrocatalyst for electrocatalytic N 2 reduction. Due to the synergistic effect of MXene/MAX heterostructure, the existence of Sn vacancies and the highly dispersed Sn active sites, the obtained Sn@Ti 2 CT X /Ti 2 SnC–V exhibits an optimal NH 3 yield of 28.4 µg h −1 mg cat −1 with an excellent FE of 15.57% at − 0.4 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.1 M Na 2 SO 4 , as well as an ultra-long durability. Noticeably, this catalyst represents a satisfactory NH 3 yield rate of 10.53 µg h −1 mg −1 in the home-made simulation device, where commercial electrochemical photovoltaic cell was employed as power source, air and ultrapure water as feed stock. The as-proposed strategy represents great potential toward ammonia production in terms of financial cost according to the systematic technical economic analysis. This work is of significance for large-scale green ammonia production.