Single Atoms of Iron on MoS2 Nanosheets for N2 Electroreduction into Ammonia.

Efforts have been devoted to achieving a highly efficient artificial synthesis of ammonia (NH3 ). Reported herein is a novel Fe-MoS2 catalyst with Fe atomically dispersed onto MoS2 nanosheets, imitating natural nitrogenase, to boost N2 electroreduction into NH3 at room temperature. The Fe-MoS2 nanosheets exhibited a faradic efficiency of 18.8 % with a yield rate of 8.63 μg NH 3  mgcat. -1  h-1 for NH3 at -0.3 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. The mechanism study revealed that the electroreduction of N2 was promoted and the competing hydrogen evolution reaction was suppressed by decorating the edge sites of S in MoS2 with the atomically dispersed Fe, resulting in high catalytic performance for the electroreduction of N2 into NH3 . This work provides new ideas for the design of catalysts for N2 electroreduction and strengthens the understanding about N2 activation over Mo-based catalysts.