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journal article·2026-02-04Open access

Dynamic Etching‐Induced Cl‐Terminated Ti 3 C 2 Cl x /Ti 3 ZnC 2 Heterostructure for Ammonia Electrosynthesis and Zinc‐Nitrogen Batteries

Yu Wang, Ying Sun, Liqun Ye, Jichi Liu, Hui Li, Yang Fu, Fengzhan Sun, Jieshan Qiu, Chang Yu, Tianyi Ma

Advanced Science
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Abstract

ABSTRACT 2D Ti 3 C 2 T x MXenes are of great potential in catalysis, energy storage, and conversion, yet the controlled tuning of their structure, intrinsic activity, and stability remains a challenge. Herein, we address this challenge through a dual‐modification strategy, synthesizing a Cl‐terminated MXene/MAX (Ti 3 C 2 Cl x /Ti 3 ZnC 2 ) heterostructure by a dynamic etching approach for efficient electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). This catalyst achieves an NH 3 yield of 20.1 µg h −1 mg −1 and a Faradaic efficiency of 38.1% at −0.2 V vs. RHE in 0.1 m KOH electrolyte, with high stability for over 70 h, positioning it among the top‐performing MXene‐based NRR electrocatalysts. Experimental and theoretical analyses demonstrate that the Ti 3 C 2 Cl x /Ti 3 ZnC 2 heterostructure modulates the electronic structure of Ti sites, thus optimizing the intermediate adsorption and reducing the energy barrier of *NH 2 → NH 3 conversion in the distal pathway to 0.7 eV. The Zn‐N 2 battery assembled with Ti 3 C 2 Cl x /Ti 3 ZnC 2 can reach a peak power density of 36.5 µW cm −2 , with an NH 3 yield of 13.1 µg h −1 mg −1 . This study has demonstrated that the dual modification strategy involving surface terminations regulation and heterostructure construction is effective to improve both NRR activity and stability of MXene‐based electrocatalysts, which is crucial for efficient NH 3 production and energy generation. This improvement paves the way for efficient ammonia and energy co‐generation, providing a viable materials design strategy and deeper mechanistic insights.
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Research context

Energy storageCatalysis & surfaces

OpenAlex topics: Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction · Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion · MXene and MAX Phase Materials

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

Affiliations

Institute of Clean Energy Chemistry Key Laboratory for Green Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry of Advanced Materials of Liaoning Province College of Chemistry Liaoning University Shenyang Liaoning P. R. China

College of Materials and Chemical Engineering Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Crystalline and Energy Conversion Materials China Three Gorges University Yichang P. R. China

Centre For Atomaterials and Nanomanufacturing (CAN) School of Science RMIT University Melbourne Victoria Australia

ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Intelligent Energy Efficiency in Future Protected Cropping (E2Crop) Melbourne Victoria Australia

Shanghai Advanced Research Institute Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai P. R. China

College of Chemical Engineering State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering Beijing University of Chemical Technology Beijing P. R. China

State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Frontier Science Center for Smart Materials Liaoning Key Lab for Energy Materials and Chemical Engineering School of Chemical Engineering Dalian University of Technology Dalian Liaoning P. R. China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project · Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province · Australian Research Council · Australian Renewable Energy Agency

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