P-Doped graphene toward enhanced electrocatalytic N₂ reduction

Abstract

Catalysts for the N₂ reduction reaction (NRR) are at the heart of key alternative technology to the Haber-Bosch process for NH₃ synthesis, and are expected to optimize the interplay between efficiency, activity and selectivity. Here, we report our recent finding that P-doped graphene shows superior NRR performances in aqueous media at present, with a remarkably large NH₃ yield of 32.33 μg h^-1 mg_cat.^-1 and a high faradaic efficiency of 20.82% at -0.65 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode. The mechanism is clarified by density functional theory calculations.