Electrochemical Reduction of N₂ under Ambient Conditions for Artificial N₂ Fixation and Renewable Energy Storage Using N₂/NH₃ Cycle

Abstract

Using tetrahexahedral gold nanorods as a heterogeneous electrocatalyst, an electrocatalytic N₂ reduction reaction is shown to be possible at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, with a high Faradic efficiency up to 4.02% at -0.2 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (1.648 µg h^-1 cm^-2 and 0.102 µg h^-1 cm^-2 for NH₃ and N₂ H₄ ·H₂ O, respectively).