FeTe_(2) as an earth-abundant metal telluride catalyst for electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation

Design of cost-effective,yet highly active electrocatalysts for nitrogen reduction reaction(NRR)is of vital significance for sustainable electrochemical NH_(3) synthesis.Herein,we have demonstrated,from both computational and experimental perspectives,that FeTe_(2) can be an efficient and durable NRR catalyst.Theoretical computations unveil that FeTe_(2) possesses abundant surface-terminated and low-coordinate Fe sites that can activate the NRR with a low limiting potential(-0.84 V)and currently impede the competing hydrogen evolution reaction.As a proof-of-concept prototype,we synthesized FeTe_(2) nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide(FeTe_(2)/RGO),which exhibited a high NRR activity with the exceptional combination of NH_(3) yield(39.2 lg h^(-1) mg^(-1))and Faradaic efficiency(18.1%),thus demonstrating the feasibility of using FeTe_(2) and other earth-abundant metal tellurides for electrocatalytic N_(2) fixation.