Enhancing electrocatalytic N2-to-NH3 fixation by suppressing hydrogen evolution with alkylthiols modified Fe3P nanoarrays

Electrocatalytic N2 reduction provides an attractive alternative to Haber-Bosch process for artificial NH3 synthesis. The difficulty of suppressing competing proton reduction, however, largely impedes its practical use. Herein, we design a hydrophobic octadecanethiol-modified Fe3P nanoarrays supported on carbon paper (C18@Fe3P/CP) to effectively repel water, concentrate N2, and enhance N2-to-NH3 conversion. Such catalyst achieves an NH3 yield of...