MXene Quantum Dots/Copper Nanocomposites for Synergistically Enhanced N2 Electroreduction

Electrocatalytic N-2 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 mu g 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 N-2 and promote the *N2H formation, consequently resulting in the much reduced energy barriers and greatly enhanced NRR performance.

Automated summary

Researchers have designed a novel heterostructured MQDs/Cu as an efficient and durable NRR catalyst, which displayed synergistically enhanced NRR activity superior to pure MQDs and Cu, as well as most state-of-the-art NRR catalysts.