Enhancing Green Ammonia Electrosynthesis Through Tuning Sn Vacancies in Sn-Based MXene/MAX Hybrids

作者：Dai, Xinyu; Du, Zhen-Yi; Sun, Ying^*; Chen, Ping; Duan, Xiaoguang; Zhang, Junjun; Li, Hui; Fu, Yang; Jia, Baohua; Zhang, Lei; Fang, Wenhui; Qiu, Jieshan^*; Ma, Tianyi^*

来源：Nano-Micro Letters, 2024, 16(1): 89.

DOI：10.1007/s40820-023-01303-2

• Green ammonia synthesis
• N-2 electroreduction
• Renewable energy
• Sn
• MXene/MAX hybrid

Renewable energy driven N-2 electroreduction with air as nitrogen source holds great promise for realizing scalable green ammonia production. However, relevant out-lab research is still in its infancy. Herein, a novel Sn-based MXene/MAX hybrid with abundant Sn vacancies, Sn@Ti2CTX/Ti2SnC-V, was synthesized by controlled etching Sn@Ti2SnC MAX phase and demonstrated as an efficient electrocatalyst for electrocatalytic N-2 reduction. Due to the synergistic effect of MXene/MAX heterostructure, the existence of Sn vacancies and the highly dispersed Sn active sites, the obtained Sn@Ti2CTX/Ti2SnC-V exhibits an optimal NH3 yield of 28.4 mu g h(-1) mg(cat)(-1) with an excellent FE of 15.57% at - 0.4 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.1 M Na2SO4, as well as an ultra-long durability. Noticeably, this catalyst represents a satisfactory NH3 yield rate of 10.53 mu g h(-1) mg(-1) in the home-made simulation device, where commercial electrochemical photovoltaic cell was employed as power source, air and ultrapure water as feed stock. The as-proposed strategy represents great potential toward ammonia production in terms of financial cost according to the systematic technical economic analysis. This work is of significance for large-scale green ammonia production.

• 单位
  北京化工大学; y