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Reply to: Reassessment of the catalytic activity of bismuth for aqueous nitrogen electroreduction

Nature Catalysis volume 5, pages 385–387 (2022)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 25 May 2022

replying to J. Choi et al. Nature Catalysis https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00785-4 (2022)

In our recent work1, we reported that the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (ENRR) selectivity (Faradaic efficiency (FE)) for ammonia generation on bismuth nanocrystals (BiNCs) can be substantially promoted by potassium cations. Our results revealed that potassium cations can enhance nitrogen activation while suppressing the hydrogen evolution reaction on bismuth surfaces. The FEs for NH3 on BiNCs and Au nanocrystals were 7.6% and 4.3% in acidic aqueous solutions (pH value kept at 3.5) without K+, but they increased to 66% and 22.5% with K+, respectively.

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Fig. 1: ENRR performance for BiNCs/CB with 14N2 or 15N2 as the feed gas.
Fig. 2: ENRR performance for BiNCs/CB with purified or unpurified 14N2 as the feed gas.

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Source data are provided with this paper. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Analytical and Testing Center of BIT for technical support. We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 21971012), the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (JQ20007) and the Beijing Institute of Technology Research Fund Program for Young Scholars.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Cluster Science, Beijing Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic/Electrophotonic Conversion Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, P. R. China

    Yu-Chen Hao, Li-Wei Chen & An-Xiang Yin

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  1. Yu-Chen Hao
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  2. Li-Wei Chen
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Contributions

A.-X.Y. designed and supervised the research. Y.-C.H. and L.-W.C. synthesized the catalysts, and conducted the analysis and electrocatalytic studies. A.-X.Y., Y.-C.H. and L.-W.C. discussed the results and co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to An-Xiang Yin.

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Nature Catalysis thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Methods and Figs. 1–6.

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Hao, YC., Chen, LW. & Yin, AX. Reply to: Reassessment of the catalytic activity of bismuth for aqueous nitrogen electroreduction. Nat Catal 5, 385–387 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00786-3

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