Electrochemical Fabrication of Porous Au Film on Ni Foam for Nitrogen Reduction to Ammonia.

Electrochemical reduction of N2 to NH3 provides an alternative strategy to replace the industrial Haber-Bosch process for facile and sustainable production of NH3 . The development of efficient electrocatalysts for the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is highly desired. Herein, a micelle-assisted electrodeposition method is presented for the direct fabrication of porous Au film on Ni foam (pAu/NF). Benefiting from its interconnected porous architectonics, the pAu/NF exhibits superior NRR performance with a high NH3 yield rate of 9.42 µg h-1 cm-2 and a superior Faradaic efficiency of 13.36% at -0.2 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode under the neutral electrolyte (0.1 m Na2 SO4 ). The proposed micelle-assisted electrodeposition strategy is highly valuable for future design of active NRR catalysts with desired compositions toward various electrocatalysis fields.