氨(NH3)被认为是农业中的重要化学原料,工业,和其他领域。然而,传统的哈伯-博世(HB)氨(NH3)生产能耗高,苛刻的反应条件,和大量的二氧化碳排放。尽管在环境条件下将含氮物质电催化还原为NH3作为新的前沿出现,有几个瓶颈问题阻碍了商业化进程。这些包括低催化效率,与析氢反应的竞争,和在打破N=N三键的困难。在这次审查中,我们探索电催化NH3合成的最新进展,使用氮和硝酸盐作为反应物。我们专注于催化剂设计的贡献,特别是基于分子-催化剂相互作用机制,以及化学键断裂和定向耦合机制,以解决电催化NH3合成过程中的上述问题。最后,我们讨论了该领域的相关机遇和挑战。
Ammonia (NH3) is considered to be a critical chemical feedstock in agriculture, industry, and other fields. However, conventional Haber-Bosch (HB) ammonia (NH3) production suffers from high energy consumption, harsh reaction conditions, and large carbon dioxide emissions. Despite the emergence of electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogenous substances to NH3 under ambient conditions as a new frontier, there are several bottleneck problems that impede the commercialization process. These include low catalytic efficiency, competition with the hydrogen evolution reaction, and difficulties in breaking the N≡N triple bond. In this review, we explore the recent advances in electrocatalytic NH3 synthesis, using nitrogen and nitrate as reactants. We focus on the contribution of the catalyst design, specifically based on molecular-catalyst interaction mechanisms, as well as chemical bond breaking and directional coupling mechanisms, to address the aforementioned problems during electrocatalytic NH3 synthesis. Finally, we discuss the relevant opportunities and challenges in this field.