Strategic design of VO<sub>2</sub> encased in N-doped carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for the nitrogen reduction reaction in neutral and acidic media

Chhetri, Ashis; Biswas, Ashmita; Podder, Sumana; Dey, Ramendra Sundar; Mitra, Joyee

doi:10.1039/d4nr00640b

Nanoscale

2024

DOI: 10.1039/d4nr00640b

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Strategic design of VO₂ encased in N-doped carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for the nitrogen reduction reaction in neutral and acidic media

Ashis Chhetri,

Ashmita Biswas,

Sumana Podder

et al.

Abstract: Electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation to ammonia (NH3), a precursor for fertilizer production and a promising energy carrier, has garnered widespread interest as an environment-friendly and sustainable alternative to the energy-intensive fossil-feedstock-dependent...

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V₂O₃/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways

An,

Xia,

et al. 2024

SusMat

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Electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is a sustainable alternative to the Haber‒Bosch process for ammonia (NH3) production. However, the significant uphill energy in the multistep NRR pathway is a bottleneck for favorable serial reactions. To overcome this challenge, we designed a vanadium oxide/nitride (V2O3/VN) hybrid electrocatalyst in which V2O3 and VN coexist coherently at the heterogeneous interface. Since single‐phase V2O3 and VN exhibit different surface catalytic kinetics for NRR, the V2O3/VN hybrid electrocatalyst can provide alternating reaction pathways, selecting a lower energy pathway for each material in the serial NRR pathway. As a result, the ammonia yield of the V2O3/VN hybrid electrocatalyst was 219.6 µg h−1 cm−2, and the Faradaic efficiency was 18.9%, which is much higher than that of single‐phase VN, V2O3, and VNxOy solid solution catalysts without heterointerfaces. Density functional theory calculations confirmed that the composition of these hybrid electrocatalysts allows NRR to proceed from a multistep reduction reaction to a low‐energy reaction pathway through the migration and adsorption of intermediate species. Therefore, the design of metal oxide/nitride hybrids with coherent heterointerfaces provides a novel strategy for synthesizing highly efficient electrochemical catalysts that induce steps favorable for the efficient low‐energy progression of NRR.

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V₂O₃/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways

An,

Xia,

et al. 2024

SusMat

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Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic N2 Fixation Using Carbon Catalysts

Xu,

Su,

Zhao

et al. 2025

Nanomaterials

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Carbon catalysts have shown promise as an alternative to the currently available energy-intensive approaches for nitrogen fixation (NF) to urea, NH3, or related nitrogenous compounds. The primary challenges for NF are the natural inertia of nitrogenous molecules and the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Recently, carbon-based materials have made significant progress due to their tunable electronic structure and ease of defect formation. These properties significantly enhance electrocatalytic and photocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) activity. While transition metal-based catalysts have solved the kinetic constraints to activate nitrogen bonds via the donation-back-π approach, there is a problem: the d-orbital electrons of these transition metal atoms tend to generate H-metal bonds, inadvertently amplifying unwanted HER. Because of this, a timely review of defective carbon-based electrocatalysts for NF is imperative. Such a review will succinctly capture recent developments in both experimental and theoretical fields. It will delve into multiple defective engineering approaches to advance the development of ideal carbon-based electrocatalysts and photocatalysts. Furthermore, this review will carefully explore the natural correlation between the structure of these defective carbon-based electrocatalysts and photocatalysts and their NF activity. Finally, novel carbon-based catalysts are introduced to obtain more efficient performance of NF, paving the way for a sustainable future.

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Strategic design of VO₂ encased in N-doped carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for the nitrogen reduction reaction in neutral and acidic media

Abstract: Electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation to ammonia (NH3), a precursor for fertilizer production and a promising energy carrier, has garnered widespread interest as an environment-friendly and sustainable alternative to the energy-intensive fossil-feedstock-dependent...

Cited by 2 publications

References 57 publications

V₂O₃/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways

V₂O₃/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways

Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic N2 Fixation Using Carbon Catalysts

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Strategic design of VO2 encased in N-doped carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for the nitrogen reduction reaction in neutral and acidic media

Abstract: Electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation to ammonia (NH3), a precursor for fertilizer production and a promising energy carrier, has garnered widespread interest as an environment-friendly and sustainable alternative to the energy-intensive fossil-feedstock-dependent...

Cited by 2 publications

References 57 publications

V2O3/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways

V2O3/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways

Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic N2 Fixation Using Carbon Catalysts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Strategic design of VO₂ encased in N-doped carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for the nitrogen reduction reaction in neutral and acidic media

V₂O₃/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways

V₂O₃/VN electrocatalysts with coherent heterogeneous interfaces for selecting low‐energy nitrogen reduction pathways