Electrochemical N2 fixation to NH3 under ambient conditions: porous LiFe5O8 nanoparticle-reduced graphene oxide as a highly efficient and selective catalyst

Traditional NH3 production based on the Haber-Bosch process is usually accompanied by high energy consumption and a large amount of carbon dioxide emission, which are not conducive to the realization of global carbon neutralization. Electrochemical N-2 reduction is regarded as a clean strategy to deal with this problem. In this work, porous LiFe5O8 nanoparticle-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is proposed as an efficient electrocatalyst for artificial N-2-to-NH3 fixation with excellent selectivity under ambient conditions. Electrochemical tests in 0.1 M HCl show that such a hybrid achieves a high NH3 yield of 36.025 mg h(-1) mg(cat.)(-1) and a high faradaic efficiency of 13.08% at -0.2 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode. Furthermore, it also exhibits structural stability. Theoretical calculations reveal that LiFe5O8-rGO can efficiently catalyze NH3 synthesis with a low energy barrier.