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Published:
05 October 2020
Regulating surface state of WO3 nanosheets by gamma irradiation for suppressing hydrogen evolution reaction in electrochemical N2 fixation
Tao Wang(
),
Jianping He(
)
),
Jianping He(
)
Topics:
AmmoniaHigh resolution transmission electron microscopyHydrogenHydrogen evolution reaction IrradiationNanosheetsNitrogenScanning electron microscopySurface statesTemperatureTungsten compounds
Cite this article:
Du Y, Jiang C, Song L, et al.
Regulating surface state of WO3 nanosheets by gamma irradiation for suppressing hydrogen evolution reaction in electrochemical N2 fixation.
Nano Research,
2020, 13(10): 2784-2790.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2929-z
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Realizing the reduction of N2 to NH3 at low temperature and pressure is always the unremitting pursuit of scientists and then electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction offers an intriguing alternative. Here, we develop a feasible way, gamma irradiation, for constructing defective structure on the surface of WO3 nanosheets, which is clearly observed at the atomic scale by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM). The abundant oxygen vacancies ensure WO3 nanosheets with a Faradaic efficiency of 23% at -0.3 V vs. RHE. Moreover, we start from the regulation of the surface state to suppress proton availability towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on the active site and thus boost the selectivity of nitrogen reduction.
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Regulating surface state of WO3 nanosheets by gamma irradiation for suppressing hydrogen evolution reaction in electrochemical N2 fixation
Tao Wang(
), Jianping He(
)
), Jianping He(
)
Abstract
Realizing the reduction of N2 to NH3 at low temperature and pressure is always the unremitting pursuit of scientists and then electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction offers an intriguing alternative. Here, we develop a feasible way, gamma irradiation, for constructing defective structure on the surface of WO3 nanosheets, which is clearly observed at the atomic scale by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM). The abundant oxygen vacancies ensure WO3 nanosheets with a Faradaic efficiency of 23% at -0.3 V vs. RHE. Moreover, we start from the regulation of the surface state to suppress proton availability towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on the active site and thus boost the selectivity of nitrogen reduction.
Keywords:
surface state, ammonia, oxygen vacancies, nitrogen reduction reaction, WO3
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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Publication history
Received: 02 March 2020
Revised: 31 May 2020
Accepted: 12 June 2020
Published:
05 October 2020
Issue date: October 2020
Copyright
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11575084 and 51602153), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20160795), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. NE2018104). The author also thank a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
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