Elevating the energy efficiency for the power-to-ammonia conversion: Role of oxygen evolution reaction kinetics

Electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is imperatively countered with the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on a conventional Pt counter electrode. Upon focusing on the development of suitable cathode catalysts, it is usually overseen that OER on Pt seeks a significant energy input to overcome the slow reaction kinetics, regardless of the efficiency of the NRR catalyst. Here, we unveil an out-of-the-box concept with state-of-the-art catalysts that, on pursuing OER with RuO2 in KOH, the NRR process reinforces thermodynamically. In this work, it has been shown how both the electrode and electrolyte simultaneously help to elevate a reaction mechanism in terms of Gibbs' energy and equilibrium constant. As a proof of concept, we assembled RuO2 with an NRR catalyst, iron phthalocyanine (FePc), in an electrolyzer, preferably in a two-electrode setup, where the catholyte consisted of 0.5M NaBF4. This system achieved selective cathodic conversion of N2 to NH3 with 67.6% Faradaic efficiency at 0.0 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode) and simultaneous anodic water oxidation to O2 with a high electricity-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency of 46.7%. The electrolyzer forecasted a full cell voltage of 2.04 V, which demands only 603 mV overpotential to attain 0.5 mA current to drive forward the chemical equilibrium of the overall cell reaction. This study not only emphasized the importance of electrode-electrolyte improvisation but also provided a wider outlook in terms of different thermodynamic parameters to be considered to determine the efficiency of the overall NRR coupled OER process.