MXene Quantum Dots/Copper Nanocomposites for Synergistically Enhanced N 2 Electroreduction

Energy & Environmental Materials

article

Yonghua Cheng¹  Xingchuan Li¹  Peng Shen¹  Yali Guo¹  Ke Chu¹ 

[1] School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University

关键词: density functional theory;    electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation;    heterostructure;    MXene quantum dots;   

DOI  :  10.1002/eem2.12268

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Electrocatalytic N2 reduction reaction (NRR) represents an appealing solution for sustainable ammonia production, whereas exploring high-efficiency NRR catalysts is highly desired but extremely challenging. Herein, we combine Ti3C2Tx-MXene quantum dots (MQDs) with porous Cu nanosheets to design a novel heterostructured MQDs/Cu as an effective and durable NRR catalyst. Impressively, MQDs/Cu showed a synergistically enhanced NRR activity with an NH3 yield of 78.5 μg h−1 mg−1 (−0.5 V) and a Faradaic efficiency of 21.3% (−0.4 V), far superior to pure MQDs and Cu, and outperforming the majority of the state-of-the-art NRR catalysts. Density function theory computations demonstrated that the synergy of MQDs and Cu enabled the creation of interfacial Cu-Ti dimer as dual-active-centers to strongly activate the absorbed N2 and promote the *N2H formation, consequently resulting in the much reduced energy barriers and greatly enhanced NRR performance.

【 授权许可】

Unknown