High-efficiency electrochemical ammonia synthesis at co-catalytic Fe–Mo dual-atom sites
Abstract
To tackle the challenge in electrochemical nitrogen fixing and reduction in aqueous electrolytes, the conventional approach has been to suppress the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction. Nonetheless, proton provision is a crucial step in the nitrogen reduction pathway to produce ammonia, and a single active site faces the daunting task in striking a balance between high nitrogen fixation efficiency and fast protonation kinetics. This work presents a harmonic strategy featuring atomically dispersed dual Fe–Mo sites anchored in an N-doped carbon (FeMoNC) substrate, where a low-spin Fe center with enriched empty d orbitals aids in nitrogen fixation and activation, and the adjacent Mo site accelerates the protonation kinetics of N-containing intermediates at the Fe site via a distal associative mechanism. Driven by this co-catalytic mechanism, the FeMoNC catalyst achieves a Faradaic efficiency of 37.42%, marking a significant improvement of 7.8- and 10.6-fold over Fe or Mo single-atom catalysts, respectively. Furthermore, an excellent NH 3 yield of 54.40 μg h –1 mg cat. –1 is realized in a flow cell by enhancing mass transfer. This study provides valuable insights into diatomic co-catalytic mechanisms for electrochemical ammonia synthesis.
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One catalyst recommended by eNRRCrew, MoFeNC, has recently been experimentally validated by our group, demonstrating promising eNRR activity.
“Encouragingly, one of the catalysts recommended by eNRRCrew, MoFeNC [single-atom molybdenum (Mo) and iron (Fe) atoms co-anchored on a nitrogen-doped porous carbon matrix], has recently been experimentally validated by our group, demonstrating promising eNRR activity [53].”
From Automating structure-activity analysis for electrochemical nitrogen reduction catalyst design through multi-agent collaborations (2025) · cites this paper as [53]
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- Authors
- Li, R., Ma, R., Zhang, L.-L., Ma, W., Shao, G., Zhang, X., Tian, Y., Jiao, M., & Zhou, Z.
- Affiliations
- Zhengzhou University (CN)
- Interdisciplinary Research Center for Sustainable Energy Science and Engineering (IRC4SE), School of Chemical Engineering
- Nankai University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Jiao, Menggai
- Zhou, Zhen
- Venue
- ACS Nano
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2025-05-05
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 18
- Pages
- 17686-17697
- ISSN
- 1936-0851 (ISSN-L)
- 1936-086X
- OpenAlex
- W4410096201
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 14
- FWCI
- 6.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- ACS Nano (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Key Scientific Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province (24A530009)
- Zhengzhou University (JC23257011)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (22208322, U21A20281)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Catalysis › Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Metalloenzymes and iron-sulfur proteins
- Keywords
- electrochemical nitrogen reduction, co-catalysis, nitrogen-doped carbon, protonation kinetics, hydrogen evolution suppression, Faradaic efficiency, mass transfer enhancement, flow cell
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