Tuning Surface Potential Polarization to Enhance N₂ Affinity for Ammonia Electrosynthesis

Electrocatalytic N₂ reduction reaction (NRR) to synthesize ammonia is a sustainable reaction that is expected to replace Haber Bosch process. Laminated Bi₂WO₆ has great potential as an NRR electrocatalyst, however, the effective activity requires that the inert substrate is fully activated. Here, for the first time, success is achieved in activating the Bi₂WO₆ basal planes with NRR activity through Ti doping. The introduction of Ti successfully tunes the surface potential distribution and enhances the N₂ adsorption. The subsequently strong hybrid coupling of d(Ti)-p(N) orbitals fills the electronic state of N₂ antibonding molecular orbital, which greatly weakens the bonding strength of N≡N bonds. Further, in situ synchrotron radiation-based Fourier transform infrared (SR-FTIR) spectrum and theoretical calculations show that surface potential polarization enhances the adsorption of HNN* by Bi-Ti dual-metal sites, which is beneficial for the subsequent activation hydrogenation process. The Ti-Bi₂WO₆ nanosheets achieve 11.44% Faradaic efficiency (-0.2 V vs. RHE), a NH₃ yield rate of 23.14 µg mg^-1 h^-1 (¹⁵N calibration), and satisfactory stability in 0.1 M HCl environment. The mutual assistance of theory and experiment can help understand and develop of excellent two-dimensional (2D) materials for the NRR.