Ambient Nitrogen Reduction to Ammonia Electrocatalyzed by Bimetallic PdRu Porous Nanostructures

Electrochemical nitrogen fixation provides an attractive route for ammonia production with a convenient and sustainable manner. The design and development of active electrocatalysts with high yield and Faradaic efficiency for catalytic nitrogen reduction to ammonia remain a great challenge at present. Herein, we demonstrated efficient electrochemical synthesis of ammonia on three-dimensional bimetallic PdRu porous nanostructures (PdRu BPNs), which were synthesized by a very rapid reduction route. The PdRu BPNs can provide sufficient active sites to react with target species and enhance the interaction between active sites and the adsorbed nitrogen species. As such, the PdRu BPNs achieved a high activity with a NH3 yield of 25.92 μg h–1 mgcat –1 in acidic solution, which was superior to that of monometallic Pd and Ru nanostructures. This study offers a facile synthetic strategy for the rational design and development of porous metallic nanostructures as efficient electrocatalysts for electrochemical ammonia production at ambient conditions.