Efficient electrochemical reduction of nitrogen from biomass doped boron and nitrogen under ambient conditions

Abstract

The discovery of extremely effective heteroatom dopant catalysts for electrochemical reduction reactions is crucial for ambient nitrogen fixation. In this paper, we investigated nitrogen and boron doped biomass carbon as an effective electrocatalyst for nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), where the N, B content ratio, and pyrolysis temperature were optimized to improve N2 adsorption and N≡N cleavage. The resulting 600ACNB‐213 exhibits outstanding improvement in fixing N2 to ammonia with a high ammonia production rate (41 μg h−1 mg−1 at −1 V vs. RHE), outperforming other metals and carbon‐based materials and even being superior to noble‐metal‐based catalysts. Besides, there indicates good stability through six cycles of testing. Experiments and analyses demonstrated that pyridinic‐N and BC2O were active sites for ammonia synthesis and that their contents' ratio was critical for enhancing ammonia production on N, B doped carbon. These sites can enhance step‐by‐step catalytic reactions through rapid electron transfer processes by strengthening the conductivity of carbon‐based materials with dopants, substantially improving the overall catalytic performance. This research suggests that designing carbon co‐doped with N, B for effective N2 reduction electrocatalysts has a significant potential.

Interlinking electronic band properties in catalysts with electrochemical nitrogen reduction performance: a direct influence

“…Apart from that, the intrinsic semiconducting nature of main group elements shows sluggish electronic conductivity which further restricts HER process as it is highly dependent on surface electrons availability [109]. In this regard, Chen et al [110] demonstrated that boron doping onto the basal Boron and nitrogen were co-doped into biomass carbon leading to the generation of pyridinic-N and BC 2 O acting as active site for NRR as investigated by Tian et al [111] with the ammonia production rate of 41 µg h −1 mg −1 cat at −1 V vs RHE. XPS analysis data showed gradual shifting in the binding energy of boron and nitrogen depicting about synergism occurring between boron and nitrogen centers producing sufficient charge density for NRR process.…”

Biomass‐Derived Porous Carbon Materials for Electrocatalysis

“…[141] Tian et al studied N and B co-doped biomass-derived carbons as electrocatalysts for NRR, they found that pyridine-N and BC 2 O are active centers for synthesizing ammonia, these positions can significantly improve the overall catalytic performance, they optimized the N/B content ratio and pyrolysis temperature to improve N 2 adsorption and N�N cracking. [147] Li et al reported a biomass-derived N doped porous carbon (named NC-800) electrocatalyst for NRR. NC-800, which contain approximately 8 wt % of N elements, was obtained from bamboo shoots.…”

“…Tian et al. studied N and B co‐doped biomass‐derived carbons as electrocatalysts for NRR, they found that pyridine‐N and BC 2 O are active centers for synthesizing ammonia, these positions can significantly improve the overall catalytic performance, they optimized the N/B content ratio and pyrolysis temperature to improve N 2 adsorption and N≡N cracking [147] . Li et al.…”