Changchun Xu, Hongli Su, Shuaifei Zhao, Azadeh Nilghaz, Kunning Tang, Luxiang Ma, Zhuo Zou
{"title":"Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic N<sub>2</sub> Fixation Using Carbon Catalysts.","authors":"Changchun Xu, Hongli Su, Shuaifei Zhao, Azadeh Nilghaz, Kunning Tang, Luxiang Ma, Zhuo Zou","doi":"10.3390/nano15010065","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Carbon catalysts have shown promise as an alternative to the currently available energy-intensive approaches for nitrogen fixation (NF) to urea, NH<sub>3</sub>, or related nitrogenous compounds. The primary challenges for NF are the natural inertia of nitrogenous molecules and the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Recently, carbon-based materials have made significant progress due to their tunable electronic structure and ease of defect formation. These properties significantly enhance electrocatalytic and photocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) activity. While transition metal-based catalysts have solved the kinetic constraints to activate nitrogen bonds via the donation-back-π approach, there is a problem: the d-orbital electrons of these transition metal atoms tend to generate H-metal bonds, inadvertently amplifying unwanted HER. Because of this, a timely review of defective carbon-based electrocatalysts for NF is imperative. Such a review will succinctly capture recent developments in both experimental and theoretical fields. It will delve into multiple defective engineering approaches to advance the development of ideal carbon-based electrocatalysts and photocatalysts. Furthermore, this review will carefully explore the natural correlation between the structure of these defective carbon-based electrocatalysts and photocatalysts and their NF activity. Finally, novel carbon-based catalysts are introduced to obtain more efficient performance of NF, paving the way for a sustainable future.</p>","PeriodicalId":18966,"journal":{"name":"Nanomaterials","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11723318/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nanomaterials","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15010065","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Carbon catalysts have shown promise as an alternative to the currently available energy-intensive approaches for nitrogen fixation (NF) to urea, NH3, or related nitrogenous compounds. The primary challenges for NF are the natural inertia of nitrogenous molecules and the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Recently, carbon-based materials have made significant progress due to their tunable electronic structure and ease of defect formation. These properties significantly enhance electrocatalytic and photocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) activity. While transition metal-based catalysts have solved the kinetic constraints to activate nitrogen bonds via the donation-back-π approach, there is a problem: the d-orbital electrons of these transition metal atoms tend to generate H-metal bonds, inadvertently amplifying unwanted HER. Because of this, a timely review of defective carbon-based electrocatalysts for NF is imperative. Such a review will succinctly capture recent developments in both experimental and theoretical fields. It will delve into multiple defective engineering approaches to advance the development of ideal carbon-based electrocatalysts and photocatalysts. Furthermore, this review will carefully explore the natural correlation between the structure of these defective carbon-based electrocatalysts and photocatalysts and their NF activity. Finally, novel carbon-based catalysts are introduced to obtain more efficient performance of NF, paving the way for a sustainable future.
期刊介绍:
Nanomaterials (ISSN 2076-4991) is an international and interdisciplinary scholarly open access journal. It publishes reviews, regular research papers, communications, and short notes that are relevant to any field of study that involves nanomaterials, with respect to their science and application. Thus, theoretical and experimental articles will be accepted, along with articles that deal with the synthesis and use of nanomaterials. Articles that synthesize information from multiple fields, and which place discoveries within a broader context, will be preferred. There is no restriction on the length of the papers. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical research in as much detail as possible. Full experimental or methodical details, or both, must be provided for research articles. Computed data or files regarding the full details of the experimental procedure, if unable to be published in a normal way, can be deposited as supplementary material. Nanomaterials is dedicated to a high scientific standard. All manuscripts undergo a rigorous reviewing process and decisions are based on the recommendations of independent reviewers.