Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 15, Issue 3, Pages 5230-5239Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c10596
Keywords
cobalt phthalocyanine; nanotube; nitrogen reduction; ammonia; nitrogen fixation
Categories
Funding
- DST-FIST program [SR/FST/College-287/2015]
- DBT Star College Scheme [BT/HRD/11/036/2019]
- SERB, Govt. of India [TAR/2018/000763]
- Science & Technology and Biotechnology Department, Govt. of West Bengal [199 (Sanc.)/ST/P/ST/6G-12/2018]
- Science & Technology and Biotechnology Department, Govt. of West Bengal
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study successfully synthesized stable beta-cobalt phthalocyanine nanotubes through a scalable solvothermal method for electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction, demonstrating excellent ammonia yield and Faradaic efficiency.
Electrocatalytic ammonia (NH3) synthesis through the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) under ambient conditions presents a promising alternative to the famous century-old Haber-Bosch process. Designing and developing a high-performance electrocatalyst is a compelling necessity for electrochemical NRR. Specific transition metal based nanostructured catalysts are potential candidates for this purpose owing to their attributes such as higher actives sites, specificity as well as selectivity and electron transfer, etc. However, due to the lack of a well-organized morphology, lower activity, selectivity, and stability of the electrocatalysts make them ineffective at producing a high NH3 yield rate and Faradaic efficiency (FE) for further development. In this work, stable beta-cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) nanotubes (NTs) have been synthesized by a scalable solvothermal method for electrochemical NRR. The chemically synthesized CoPc NTs show excellent electrochemical NRR due to high specific area, greater number of exposed active sites, and specific selectivity of the catalyst. As a result, CoPc NTs produced a higher NH3 yield of 107.9 mu g h(-1) mg(cat)(-1) and FE of 27.7% in 0.1 M HCl at -0.3 V vs RHE. The density functional theory calculations confirm that the Co center in CoPc is the main active site responsible for electrochemical NRR. This work demonstrates the development of hollow nanostructured electrocatalysts in large scale for N-2 fixation to NH3.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available