Sulfur vacancies in ultrathin cobalt sulfide nanoflowers enable boosted electrocatalytic activity of nitrogen reduction reaction

Shearing Sulfur Edges of VS2 Electrocatalyst Enhances its Nitrogen Reduction Performance

“…For comparison, both characteristic peaks of VS 2 -350 appear a negative shift of 0.52 eV binding energy with relative to that of VS 2 , implying the formation of sulfur vacancies in VS 2 -350 after removing the S edges. [26] Meanwhile, the O 1s XPS spectra of VS 2 and VS 2 -350 (as shown in Figure S3, Supporting Information) show two peaks centered at ≈530.8 and ≈532.3 eV, corresponding to the adsorbed oxygen and water molecules, respectively. [33] These results demonstrate that there are no oxide and oxynitride species in the prepared catalysts.…”

“…[23][24][25] Meanwhile, the adsorption of N 2 molecules at the transition metal atoms sites, which is a crucial step for subsequent activation process, also is unavoidably blocked due to the existence of S edges at the surface of TMSs. [26] In considering the above aspects, we speculate that shearing the S edges might offer good opportunity of promoting the electrocatalytic performance of TMSs electrocatalysts by inhibiting HER and boosting NRR activity. Therefore, it is meaningful to develop new TMSs electrocatalyst based on a deliberately designed shearing S edges strategy Electrochemical N 2 fixation requires effective electrocatalysts to expedite the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) kinetics and suppress the concomitant hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).…”

Defect and interface engineering in metal sulfide catalysts for the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction: a review

“…In a recent study, Li et al created S vacancies in CoS (CoS 1− x ) by Ar-plasma treatment of hydrothermally synthesized CoS nanoflowers. 82 Compared with pristine CoS, the CoS 1− x exhibited better NRR performance, and an NH 3 yield of 12.1 μg h −1 mg cat −1 with a FE of 16.5% was achieved at −0.15 V in 0.05 M H 2 SO 4 (Fig. 6A).…”

Interface Engineering of CoS2–CeO2/Ti Nanocatalyst for Artificial N2 Fixation

“…23,24 Recently, studies have shown that Co singleatom clusters have a good catalytic effect on NRR. 25 The S element is an essential component in nitrogenase. CoS 2 may exhibit good NRR performance, and S can regulate the electronic properties of Co and the adsorption energy of intermediates.…”

“…Compared with Co 3 O 4 −CeO 2 /Ti, the catalytic performance of CoS 2 −CeO 2 /Ti is significantly improved, indicating that selective vulcanization has a significant effect on NRR, which is attributed to the fact that S doping can effectively adjust the electronic structure and provide active sites to improve catalytic performance. 25 In order to further study the phenomenon of charge transfer on the reaction interface of the catalyst, an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) test was carried out on CoS 2 , CeO 2 , and CoS 2 −CeO 2 (Figure S6). The results verify that CoS 2 −CeO 2 has a smaller impedance value and therefore a higher charge transfer rate, which again confirms its high NRR performance.…”