Enhancing Electrocatalytic N₂ Reduction to NH₃ by CeO₂ Nanorod with Oxygen Vacancies

Abstract

As a sustainable and environmentally friendly route, electrochemical N2 reduction has been expected to replace the traditional N2 fixation process of Haber–Bosch, which is energy-consuming and capital-intensive. In this work, we demonstrate that CeO2 nanorod with oxygen vacancies achieves a great enhancement for NRR with excellent selectivity and stability. Such electrocatalyst delivers NH3 yield of 16.4 μg h–1 mg–1cat. at −0.5 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and Faradaic efficiency of 3.7% at −0.4 V vs RHE using aqueous 0.1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte, higher than that of pristine CeO2 counterpart (5.4 μg h–1 mg–1cat.; 2.1%).