Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis via Nitrogen Reduction Reaction on a MoS2 Catalyst: Theoretical and Experimental Studies

Ling Zhang; Xuqiang Ji; Xiang Ren; Yongjun Ma; Xifeng Shi; Ziqi Tian; Abdullah M Asiri; Liang Chen; Bo Tang; Xuping Sun

doi:10.1002/adma.201800191

Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis via Nitrogen Reduction Reaction on a MoS₂ Catalyst: Theoretical and Experimental Studies

Adv Mater. 2018 Jul;30(28):e1800191. doi: 10.1002/adma.201800191. Epub 2018 May 28.

Authors

Ling Zhang^{1

2}, Xuqiang Ji¹, Xiang Ren¹, Yongjun Ma³, Xifeng Shi⁴, Ziqi Tian⁵, Abdullah M Asiri⁶, Liang Chen⁵, Bo Tang⁴, Xuping Sun^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Science, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, Sichuan, China.
² College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, Sichuan, China.
³ Analytical and Testing Center, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, Sichuan, China.
⁴ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250014, Shandong, China.
⁵ Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, Zhejiang, China.
⁶ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science & Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 29808517
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201800191

Abstract

The discovery of stable and noble-metal-free catalysts toward efficient electrochemical reduction of nitrogen (N₂ ) to ammonia (NH₃ ) is highly desired and significantly critical for the earth nitrogen cycle. Here, based on the theoretical predictions, MoS₂ is first utilized to catalyze the N₂ reduction reaction (NRR) under room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Electrochemical tests reveal that such catalyst achieves a high Faradaic efficiency (1.17%) and NH₃ yield (8.08 × 10^-11 mol s^-1 cm^-1 ) at -0.5 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.1 m Na₂ SO₄ . Even in acidic conditions, where strong hydrogen evolution reaction occurs, MoS₂ is still active for the NRR. This work represents an important addition to the growing family of transition-metal-based catalysts with advanced performance in NRR.

Keywords: MoS2 nanosheet arrays; N2 reduction reaction; ambient conditions; density functional theory; electrocatalysis.