Boron modification of AuRh mesoporous nanotubes for electro-reduction of nitrogen to ammonia.

Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is a prospective tactics for ammonia synthesis. However, the development of highly active NRR electrocatalysts is still challenging owing to the difficult activation of nitrogen and competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, we synthesized boron-doped AuRh mesoporous nanotubes (B-AuRh MNTs) via dual-template method coupled with boron doping. The mesoporous nanotube structure has high specific surface area and excellent surface permeability. Thereby, the B-AuRh MNTs exhibit NH3 yield of 13.3 μg h-1 mg-1cat and Faraday efficiency of 22.5% under 0.1 M Na2SO4. The doping of boron with weak hydrogen adsorption can generate electronic effect, thus stimulating the activation of N2 molecules and effectively inhibiting HER. This study proposes a universal method for the preparation of boron-doped Pd-based catalysts, which is beneficial to improve the NRR performance. .