Enhanced N2-to-NH3 conversion efficiency on Cu3P nanoribbon electrocatalyst

Ambient electroreduction of nitrogen (N2) is considered as a green and feasible approach for ammonia (NH3) synthesis, which urgently demands for efficient electrocatalyst. Morphology has close relationship with catalytic activity of heterogeneous catalysts. Nanoribbon is attractive nanostructure, which possesses the flexibility of one-dimensional nanomaterials, the large surface area of two-dimensional nanomaterials, and lateral size confinement effects. In this work, Cu3P nanoribbon is proposed as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for N2-to-NH3 conversion under benign conditions. When measured in N2-saturated 0.1 M HCl, such Cu3P nanoribbon achieves high performance with an excellent Faradaic efficiency as high as 37.8% and a large yield of 18.9 µg·h−1µmgcat.−1 at −0.2 V. It also demonstrates outstanding stability in long-term electrolysis test at least for 45 h.