Professor Peng Feng of Guangzhou University has synthesized ferromolybdenum carbide electrocatalyst for enrr

Ammonia (NH 3) is not only the raw material for the production of various fertilizers, but also widely used in the production of nitrogen compounds Because liquid ammonia contains 17.6% hydrogen, which is easier to transport and store than liquid hydrogen, NH3 is expected to become a carbon free energy carrier with high energy density, essentially reducing carbon dioxide emissions At present, the synthetic ammonia industry is still the traditional Haber Bosch reaction High temperature (350-550 ℃) and high pressure (150-350 ATM) will consume a lot of fossil energy Moreover, each ton of NH3 produced will emit about 1.9 tons of CO2, which greatly increases the emission of CO2 and is not conducive to sustainable development Therefore, it is imperative to develop a milder and more environmentally friendly method to synthesize NH3 At present, the synthesis of ammonia by electrochemical nitrogen reduction (enrr) is widely concerned However, under high potential, the hydrogen evolution reaction (her) is inevitable, which makes the Faraday efficiency (FE) of enrr lower than expected Therefore, the development of efficient catalysts to reduce the overpotential of enrr and inhibit her is the focus of current research Recently, inspired by the active site of biological nitrogenase (Mo FE), Professor Peng Feng's team of Guangzhou University has studied and synthesized the Mo 3Fe 3C electrocatalyst for enrr In the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction, the ammonia yield of the catalyst is 72.5 μ mol H-1 g cat - 1, with good stability The average Faraday efficiency of ammonia production in 10 hours is 28.2% The theoretical calculation shows that Mo Fe synergism can effectively activate N 2 molecules, reduce the energy needed to form * n 2h in enrr process, and promote the electrochemical reduction of N 2 In this study, Fourier transform AC voltammetry is innovatively used to characterize the electron transfer in enrr process, which is a fast, sensitive and effective method to evaluate the performance of enrr catalyst This study provides a new idea and method for the design and evaluation of enrr catalyst with high activity and selectivity Professor Peng Feng is the corresponding author of the paper, and Guangzhou University is the only communication unit.