Oxygen Functionalization-Induced Charging Effect on Boron Active Sites for High-Yield Electrocatalytic NH_(3) Production

Ammonia has been recognized as the future renewable energy fuel because of its wide-ranging applications in H_(2) storage and transportation sector.In order to avoid the environmentally hazardous Haber-Bosch process,recently,the third-generation ambient ammonia synthesis has drawn phenom-enal attention and thus tremendous efforts are devoted to developing efficient electrocatalysts that would circumvent the bottlenecks of the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction(NRR)like competitive hydrogen evolution reac-tion,poor selectivity of N_(2) on catalyst surface.Herein,we report the synthesis of an oxygen-functionalized boron carbonitride matrix via a two-step pyrolysis technique.The conductive BNCO(1000)architecture,the compatibility of B-2p_(z) orbital with the N-2p_(z) orbital and the charging effect over B due to the C and O edge-atoms in a pentagon altogether facilitate N_(2) adsorption on the B edge-active sites.The optimum electrolyte acidity with 0.1 M HCl and the lowered anion crowding effect aid the protonation steps of NRR via an associative alternating pathway,which gives a sufficiently high yield of ammonia(211.5μg h^(−1) mg_(cat)^(−1))on the optimized BNCO(1000)catalyst with a Faradaic efficiency of 34.7%at−0.1 V vs RHE.This work thus offers a cost-effective electrode material and provides a contemporary idea about reinforcing the charging effect over the secured active sites for NRR by selectively choosing the electrolyte anions and functionalizing the active edges of the BNCO(1000)catalyst.