journal article·2025-03Open access

Overcoming Energy‐Scaling Barriers: Efficient Ammonia Electrosynthesis on High‐Entropy Alloy Catalysts

Di Yin, Bowen Li, Boxiang Gao, Mengxue Chen, Dong Chen, You Meng, Shuai Zhang, Chenxu Zhang, Quan Quan, Lijie Chen, Cheng Yang, Chun‐Yuen Wong, Johnny Chung Yin Ho

Advanced Materials· Volume 37· Issue 9

Abstract

Abstract Electrochemically converting nitrate (NO 3 − ) to value‐added ammonia (NH 3 ) is a complex process involving an eight‐electron transfer and numerous intermediates, presenting a significant challenge for optimization. A multi‐elemental synergy strategy to regulate the local electronic structure at the atomic level is proposed, creating a broad adsorption energy landscape in high‐entropy alloy (HEA) catalysts. This approach enables optimal adsorption and desorption of various intermediates, effectively overcoming energy‐scaling limitations for efficient NH 3 electrosynthesis. The HEA catalyst achieved a high Faradaic efficiency of 94.5 ± 4.3% and a yield rate of 10.2 ± 0.5 mg h −1 mg cat −1 . It also demonstrated remarkable stability over 250 h in an integrated three‐chamber device, coupling electrocatalysis with an ammonia recovery unit for continuous NH 3 collection. This work elucidates the catalytic mechanisms of multi‐functional HEA systems and offers new perspectives for optimizing multi‐step reactions by circumventing adsorption‐energy scaling limitations.
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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

Department of Materials Science and Engineering City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR 999077 P. R. China

Department of Chemistry City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR 999077 P. R. China

State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR 999077 P. R. China

State Key Laboratory of Radio Frequency Heterogeneous Integration (Shenzhen University) College of Electronics and Information Engineering Shenzhen 518060 P. R. China

CIMC Offshore Co., Ltd. Shenzhen 518000 P. R. China

Institute of Materials Research Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School Shenzhen 518055 P. R. China

Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering Kyushu University Fukuoka 816 8580 Japan

Funding

City University of Hong Kong

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