High Faraday efficiency for electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction on Co@N-doped carbon derived from a metal-organic framework under ambient conditions

Abstract In this work, electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) on metallic Co@N-doped carbon (NC) (Co@NC) were investigated. The Co@NC catalysts obtained via pyrolysis of a metal-organic framework precursor (ZIF-67) showed high Faraday efficiency under ambient conditions in neutral electrolytes. At −0.9 V versus Ag/AgCl, the Faraday efficiency of Co@NC achieved as high as 21.79%, surpassing most of reported catalysts under comparable conditions, while the NH3 yield rate of Co@NC reached 1.57 × 10−10 mol s−1 cm−2 at the same potential. This work demonstrated that Co@NC had outstanding electrocatalytic performance for NRR. Thus it was a promising transition-metal-based catalyst in electrochemical ammonia synthesis.