Recent Advances and Challenges in 2D Metal-Free Electrocatalysts for N Fixation

Overview

Journal Front Chem

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2020 Jun 27

PMID 32587846

Authors

Xinyuan Xia

Bin Li

Shanshan Liu

Bo Tang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The ever-growing requirement of ammonia for industry and energy supply motivates people to find clean and cost-effective alternatives to overcome the shortcomings of the century-old Haber-Bosch process. Electrocatalytic N reduction (NRR) is considered a prospective way for ammonia production at ambient conditions. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) metal-free materials are emerging as highly efficient and robust electrocatalysts for NRR owing to their advanced features: highly exposed surface, abundant active sites, tunable electronic states, and long-term stability compared to metal-based and bulk catalysts. In this minireview, we briefly summarize the latest edge reports on 2D metal-free materials catalyzed NRR. Also, we discuss the challenges and perspectives on the design and synthesis of novel 2D metal-free catalysts.

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