Single‐Site Gold Catalysts on Hierarchical N‐Doped Porous Noble Carbon for Enhanced Electrochemical Reduction of Nitrogen

Abstract

Abstract Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogen (N 2 ) at ambient conditions is an alternative strategy to produce ammonia (NH 3 ) to complement the commonly applied Haber–Bosch process. However, the achievement of high Faradaic efficiencies and high NH 3 yield is still challenging. Here, Au single sites stabilized on N‐doped porous and highly oxidizing (“noble”) carbon catalysts showing excellent performance in N 2 electroreduction are reported. At a potential of −0.2 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, a stable NH 3 yield of 2.32 µg h −1 cm −2 is produced at a Faradaic efficiency of 12.3%. Besides, there is no notable fluctuation of Faradaic efficiency and NH 3 yield in six‐cycle test, which indicates good stability. This work opens up new insights to improve N 2 fixation performance by introducing catalytically active single sites into noble carbon materials for N 2 electroreduction.