Bi-Atom Electrocatalyst for Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction Reactions

Highlights A new heteronuclear bi-atom electrocatalyst has been proposed by Ma and his co-workers. The FeV@C 2 N bi-atom electrocatalyst achieved excellent electrochemical NRR performance. The FeV@C 2 N bi-atom electrocatalyst could effectively suppress the side and competing HER reaction, and thus possess better electrochemical NRR selectivity. The electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) to directly produce NH 3 from N 2 and H 2 O under ambient conditions has attracted significant attention due to its ecofriendliness. Nevertheless, the electrochemical NRR presents several practical challenges, including sluggish reaction and low selectivity. Here, bi-atom catalysts have been proposed to achieve excellent activity and high selectivity toward the electrochemical NRR by Ma and his co-workers. It could accelerate the kinetics of N 2 -to-NH 3 electrochemical conversion and possess better electrochemical NRR selectivity. This work sheds light on the introduction of bi-atom catalysts to enhance the performance of the electrochemical NRR.