Crystal Phase Engineering of Ultrathin Alloy Nanostructures for Highly Efficient Electroreduction of Nitrate to Ammonia

Abstract Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO 3 RR) toward ammonia synthesis is recognized as a sustainable strategy to balance the global nitrogen cycle. However, it still remains a great challenge to achieve highly efficient ammonia production due to the complex proton‐coupled electron transfer process in NO 3 RR. Here, the controlled synthesis of RuMo alloy nanoflowers (NFs) with unconventional face‐centered cubic (fcc) phase and hexagonal close‐packed/fcc heterophase for highly efficient NO 3 RR is reported. Significantly, fcc RuMo NFs demonstrate high Faradaic efficiency of 95.2% and a large yield rate of 32.7 mg h −1 mg cat −1 toward ammonia production at 0 and −0.1 V (vs reversible hydrogen…

• CU
  City University of Hong Kong

  Awards: 9610663, 9680301, 22005258, 7006007, 9610480
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 22175148, 22005258