Electrocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction to Ammonia Using TiO2-Supported Cu4Cl4(PPh3)4 and Ag4Cl4(PPh3)4 Nanoclusters.

The electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (ENRR) offers a sustainable and promising approach for synthesizing ammonia under ambient conditions, providing an alternative to conventional industrial processes. However, challenges such as the inherent inertness of N2 and the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in aqueous electrolytes hinder ammonia yield and Faradaic efficiencies. This research use TiO2-supported Cu4Cl4(PPh3)4 and Ag4Cl4(PPh3)4 nanoclusters (NCs) with quasi-cubic M4Cl4 cores (M = Ag or Cu) for ENRR investigations. The results reveal that TiO2-supported Cu4Cl4(PPh3)4 NCs achieved an ammonia yield of 4.25 μg·h-1·cm-2 with a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 53.0% at -0.9 V vs RHE. In contrast, TiO2-supported Ag4Cl4(PPh3)4 NCs produced a yield of 3.60 μg·h-1·cm-2 and an FE of 51.39% at -0.8 V vs RHE. Both NCs on the TiO2 support demonstrated superior performance compared to their unsupported counterparts, underscoring the critical role of TiO2 in improving electron transfer and fostering synergistic effects, thereby boosting catalytic activity. This research offers important insights into the design of supported NCs as high-performance catalysts, advancing the development of environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient approaches for ammonia production.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

• Publication date

  2025-05-27

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Materials Science, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c00866PMID 40424531
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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