Electrode

Organic chemistry

Electrocatalyst

Carbon dioxide

Composite number

Adsorption

Catalysis

Carbon fibers

Physical chemistry

Composite material

Inorganic chemistry

Ammonia production

Chemistry

Ammonia

Materials science

Carbon fixation

Electrochemistry

ACS Catalysis

Ammonia has been used in important areas such as agriculture and clean energy. Its synthesis from the electrochemical reduction of N2 is an attractive alternative to the industrial method that requires high temperature and pressure. Currently, electrochemical N2 fixation has suffered from slow kinetics due to the difficulty of N2 adsorption and N≡N cleavage. Here, N-doped porous carbon (NPC) is reported as a cost-effective electrocatalyst for ammonia synthesis from electrocatalytic N2 reduction under ambient conditions, where its N content and species were tuned to enhance N2 chemical adsorption and N≡N cleavage. The resulting NPC was effective for fixing N2 to ammonia with a high ammonia production rate (1.40 mmol g–1 h–1 at −0.9 V vs RHE). Experiments combined with density functional theory calculations revealed pyridinic and pyrrolic N were active sites for ammonia synthesis and their contents were crucial for promoting ammonia production on NPC. The energy-favorable pathway for ammonia synthesis was *N≡N → *NH═NH → *NH2–NH2 → 2NH3.

Facile Ammonia Synthesis from Electrocatalytic N<sub>2</sub> Reduction under Ambient Conditions on N-Doped Porous Carbon

Facile Ammonia Synthesis from Electrocatalytic N2 Reduction under Ambient Conditions on N-Doped Porous Carbon

Facile Ammonia Synthesis from Electrocatalytic N₂ Reduction under Ambient Conditions on N-Doped Porous Carbon