Dendritic Cu: a high-efficiency electrocatalyst for N₂ fixation to NH₃ under ambient conditions

The artificial N2 fixation to NH3 is dominated by the traditional Haber-Bosch process, which consumes large amounts of energy and natural gas with low energy efficiency and large amounts of CO2 emissions. Electrochemical N2 reduction is a promising and environmentally friendly route for artificial N2-to-NH3 fixation under milder conditions. Herein, we report that dendritic Cu acts as a highly active electrocatalyst to catalyze N2 to NH3 fixation under ambient conditions. When tested in 0.1 M HCl, such an electrocatalyst achieves a high faradaic efficiency of 15.12% and a large NH3 yield rate of 25.63 μg h-1 mgcat.-1 at -0.40 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode. Notably, this catalyst shows high electrochemical stability and excellent selectivity toward NH3 synthesis.