Microfluidic platform serves as controllable fabrication of binary Mo/Ir nanodots/carbon hetero-material for efficient electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction (Open Access)--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Liu, H., Wu, X., & Xu, J. (2023). Microfluidic platform serves as controllable fabrication of binary Mo/Ir nanodots/carbon hetero-material for efficient electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction. Particuology, 79, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2022.11.006

Microfluidic platform serves as controllable fabrication of binary Mo/Ir nanodots/carbon hetero-material for efficient electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction (Open Access)

Hengyuan Liu, Xingjiang Wu, Jianhong Xu^*

The State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

10.1016/j.partic.2022.11.006

Volume 79, August 2023, Pages 1-9

Received 21 September 2022, Revised 28 October 2022, Accepted 13 November 2022, Available online 24 November 2022, Version of Record 24 January 2023.

E-mail: xujianhong@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Highlights

• Binary Mo/Ir nanodots/carbon hetero-material was continuously and controllably fabricated via microfluidic strategy.

• Based on controllable adjustments, optimal morphology of Mo/Ir/C catalyst was sufficiently achieved.

• Both molybdenum and iridium nanodots maintained ultrafine size and homogeneous distribution on carbon skeleton.

• Excellent electrocatalytic NRR performances were obtained under both alkaline and acidic conditions.

Abstract

Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is regarded as a potential routine to achieve environment-friendly ammonia production, because of its abundant nitrogen resources, clean energy utilization and flexible operation. However, it is hindered by low activity and selectivity, in which condition well-designed catalysts are urgently in need. In this work, a binary Mo/Ir nanodots/carbon (Mo/Ir/C) hetero-material is efficiently constructed via microfluidic strategy, of which the nanodots are homogeneously distributed on the carbon skeleton and the average size is approximately 1 nm. Excellent performance for NRR is obtained in 1 mol L⁻¹ KOH, of which the optimized ammonia yield and faradic efficiency are 7.27 μg h⁻¹ cm⁻² and 2.31% respectively. Moreover, the optimized ammonia yield of 6.20 μg h⁻¹ cm⁻² and faradic efficiency of 10.59% are also obtained in 0.005 mol L⁻¹ H₂SO₄. This work achieves the continuous-flow synthesis and controllable adjustment of hetero-materials for favorable morphologies, which provides an innovative pathway for catalyst design and further promotes the development of ammonia production field.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Binary Mo/Ir nanodots; Microfluidic platform; Controllable fabrication; Flexible modification; Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction

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