Generating Defect‐Rich Bismuth for Enhancing the Rate of Nitrogen Electroreduction to Ammonia

Abstract

Abstract The electrochemical N 2 fixation, which is far from practical application in aqueous solution under ambient conditions, is extremely challenging and requires a rational design of electrocatalytic centers. We observed that bismuth (Bi) might be a promising candidate for this task because of its weak binding with H adatoms, which increases the selectivity and production rate. Furthermore, we successfully synthesized defect‐rich Bi nanoplates as an efficient noble‐metal‐free N 2 reduction electrocatalyst via a low‐temperature plasma bombardment approach. When exclusively using 1 H NMR measurements with N 2 gas as a quantitative testing method, the defect‐rich Bi(110) nanoplates achieved a 15 NH 3 production rate of 5.453 μg mg Bi −1 h −1 and a Faradaic efficiency of 11.68 % at −0.6 V vs. RHE in aqueous solution at ambient conditions.