Recent progress in electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogen to ammonia

Abstract

Nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) plays a vital role in the nitrogen cycling within ecosystems, agricultural systems, and industrial applications. Suffering from the low solubility of nitrogen (N₂), high stability of N≡N triple bond and severe competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), electrochemical NRR currently faces several problems such as sluggish yield rate and low Faraday efficiency (FE). So far, dedicated endeavors have led to significant advancements in NRR, but it is still far from satisfactory now. In this comprehensive review, we systematically consolidate recent advancements in electrochemical NRR, including high-performance NRR catalysts, innovative NRR reaction equipment, and the regulation and optimization of NRR reaction pathways. More importantly, from the reported researches, we proposed that the improvement of NRR performance required coordinated regulation from many aspects, and the unitary aspect of optimization is difficult to break through the existing bottleneck. Therefore, unlike other recent reviews, we didn't discuss in chronological order here, but with three subsections according to these aspects. In the outlook section, we highlighted the existing challenges within the NRR field. This review would serve as a guiding framework for the strategic design of catalysts and devices in NRR, while also contributing to the refinement and optimization of NRR mechanisms.