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In order to sustainably transform N2 to ammonia (NRR) using electrocatalysts under mild ambient condition, it is urgent to design and develop non-nobel metal nanocatalysts that are inexpensive and suitable for mass-production. Herein, a calcium metalate catalyst CaCoOx with oxygen vacancies was synthesized and used as an electrocatalyst for NRR for the first time, whose morphology can be controlled by the calcination temperature and the heating rate. Under the optimal conditions, the CaCoOx catalyst achieved the yield of nitrogen conversion to ammonia of 16.25 μg·h-1·mgcat.-1 at the potential of -0.3 V relative to the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) with a Faraday efficiency of 20.51%. The electrocatalyst showed good stability even after 12 times recyclability under environmental conditions and neutral electrolyte. Later, the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction performance of CaFeOx, CaNiOx, CaCuOx was investigated. These earth-rich transition metals also exhibited certain NRR electrocatalytic capabilities, which provided a door for further development of inexpensive and easily available transition metal as nitrogen reduction electrocatalysts.

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 25 May 2020
Revised: 27 July 2020
Accepted: 07 August 2020
Published: 05 September 2020
Issue date: February 2021

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21871042, 21471028 and 21671036), Changbai Mountain Scholarship, Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province (No. 20200201083JC), and Natural Science Foundation of Department of education of Jilin Province (No. JJKH20201169KJ).

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