Lewis acid–dominated aqueous electrolyte acting as co-catalyst and overcoming N2 activation issues on catalyst surface

Abstract

The growing demands for ammonia in agriculture and transportation fuel stimulate researchers to develop sustainable electrochemical methods to synthesize ammonia ambiently, to get past the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. However, the conventionally used aqueous electrolytes limit N2 solubility, leading to insufficient reactant molecules in the vicinity of the catalyst during electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). This hampers the yield and production rate of ammonia, irrespective of how efficient the catalyst is. Herein, we introduce an aqueous electrolyte (NaBF4), which not only acts as an N2-carrier in the medium but also works as a full-fledged “co-catalyst” along with our active material MnN4 to deliver a high yield of NH3 (328.59 μg h21 mgcat21) at 0.0 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. BF3-induced charge polarization shifts the metal d-band center of the MnN4 unit close to the Fermi level, inviting N2 adsorption facilely. The Lewis acidity of the free BF3 molecules further propagates their importance in polarizing the N≡N bond of the adsorbed N2 and its first protonation. This push-pull kind of electronic interaction has been confirmed from the change in d-band center values of the MnN4 site as well as charge density distribution over our active model units, which turned out to be effective enough to lower the energy barrier of the potential determining steps of NRR. Consequently, a high production rate of NH3 (2.45 × 1029 mol s21 cm22) was achieved, approaching the industrial scale where the source of NH3 was thoroughly studied and confirmed to be chiefly from the electrochemical reduction of the purged N2 gas.