Hydrothermal synthesis of transition metal tellurides (M Te , M = Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, Cd and Bi) for electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation

Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is regarded as a promising alternative to traditional Haber-Bosch process for ammonia (NH3) production. Transition metal tellurides (TMTs) are believed to possess advantageous properties for NRR, but the related investigations remain lacking, let alone the comparison of their NRR catalytic activities under the identical conditions. Herein, a series of single-phase TMTs nano-/micro- materials were prepared by one-step hydrothermal method, including NiTe2 NRs, Cu7Te4 NPs, ZnTe MPs, Ag2Te NWs, CdTe NPs and Bi2Te3 NSs, which were identically evaluated as NRR electrocatalysts in 0.1 M HCl. The most optimal FE of 26.3% and NH3 yield rate of 43.8 μg h–1 mgcat.–1 are achieved at -0.4 V vs. RHE for NiTe2 NRs, which are superior to other TMTs samples and the most of recently reported transition metal chalcogenides based electrocatalysts.