Au Sub‐Nanoclusters on TiO 2 toward Highly Efficient and Selective Electrocatalyst for N 2 Conversion to NH 3 at Ambient Conditions

As the NN bond in N 2 is one of the strongest bonds in chemistry, the fixation of N 2 to ammonia is a kinetically complex and energetically challenging reaction and, up to now, its synthesis is still heavily relying on energy and capital intensive Haber–Bosch process (150–350 atm, 350–550 °C), wherein the input of H 2 and energy are largely derived from fossil fuels and thus result in large amount of CO 2 emission. In this paper, it is demonstrated that by using Au sub‐nanoclusters (≈0.5 nm ) embedded on TiO 2 (Au loading is 1.542 wt%), the electrocatalytic N 2 reduction reaction (NRR) is indeed possible at ambient condition. Unexpectedly, NRR with very high and stable production yield (NH 3 : 21.4 µg h −1 mg…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 51522101, 51631004, 51471075, 51401084
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Award: 2016M591498