journal article·2025-07Open access

FeIr Alloy Optimizes the Trade‐Off Between Nitrate Reduction and Active Hydrogen Generation for Efficient Electro‐Synthesis of Ammonia in Neutral Media

Jie Xiong, Lingyue Jiang, Botao Zhu, Shujie Huang, Shuo Wu, Kaixuan You, Xiaohong Li, Lai Feng

Advanced Functional Materials· Volume 35· Issue 27

Abstract

Abstract Electrochemically promoted nitrate reduction reaction (NITRR) holds great potential for the “green” synthesis of ammonia (NH3). However, NITRR in neutral media, though close to the practical scenario, is often limited by an insufficient supply of active hydrogen (*H) due to sluggish water cleavage. In this work, it is demonstrated that a bimetallic alloy FeIr can optimize the trade‐off between nitrate reduction and *H formation in neutral media. As a result, FeIr exhibits excellent catalytic performance toward neutral NITRR with a Faradaic efficiency of NH3 up to 97.3% and a high yield rate up to 11.67 mg h−1 cm−2 at a low working potential of −0.6 V (versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)), surpassing the monometallic catalysts as well as the majority of Fe‐based state‐of‐the‐art. It is also found that the FeIr displays remarkable electron rearrangement between hetero‐atoms due to their significant orbital hybridization, which benefits not only the *H formation but also the NITRR process. Moreover, coupling FeIr‐based NITRR with methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) results in sustainable productions of NH3 and formate with a combined FE of nearly 200% at a cell‐voltage of 2 V. This work thus demonstrates a promising strategy for designing efficient catalysts toward neutral NITRR.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction · Hydrogen Storage and Materials · Catalytic Processes in Materials Science

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Soochow Institute for Energy and Materials Innovation (SIEMIS) School of Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies Soochow University Suzhou 215006 China

College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science The Key Lab of Health Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of Suzhou Soochow University Suzhou 215006 China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Major Basic Research Project of the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions

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