Fabrication of High Surface Area Fe/Fe₃ O₄ with Enhanced Performance for Electrocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction Reaction

The development of high-efficient and large-scale non-precious electrocatalysts to improve sluggish reaction kinetics plays a key role in enhancing electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) for ammonia production under mild condition. Herein, Fe₃ O₄ and Fe supported by porous carbon (denoted as Fe/Fe₃ O₄ /PC-800) composite with a high specific surface area of 1004.1 m²  g^-1 was prepared via a simple template method. On one hand, the high surface area of Fe/Fe₃ O₄ /PC-800 provides a large area to enhance N₂ adsorption and promote more protons and electrons to accelerate the reaction, thereby greatly improving the dynamics. On the other hand, mesoporous Fe/Fe₃ O₄ /PC-800 provides high electrochemically active surface area for promoting the occurrence of catalytic kinetics. As a result, Fe/Fe₃ O₄ /PC-800 exhibited significantly enhanced NRR performance with an ammonia yield of 31.15 μg h^-1  mg^-1 _cat. and faraday efficiency of 22.26 % at -0.1 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). This study is expected to provide a new strategy for the synthesis of catalysts with large specific area and pave the way for the foundational research in NRR.