Reactive Ionic Liquid Enables the Construction of 3D Rh Particles with Nanowire Subunits for Electrocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction

Until now, the synthesis of Rh particles with unusual three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures is still challenging. A 3D nanostructure enables fast ion/molecule transport and possesses plenty of exposed active surface, and therefore it is of great interest to construct 3D Rh particles catalysts for the N2 reduction reaction (NRR). Herein, we proposed a reactive ionic liquid strategy for fabricating unusual 3D Rh particles with nanowires as the subunits. The ionic liquid n-octylammonium formate simultaneously worked as reaction medium, reductant and template for the successful construction of 3D Rh particles. The as-prepared 3D Rh particles demonstrated excellent activity for electrocatalytic N2 fixation in 0.1 M KOH electrolyte under ambient conditions with a high NH3 yield of 35.58 μg h-1 mgcat.-1 at -0.2 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), surpassing most of the state-of-the-art noble metal catalysts. Our reactive ionic liquid strategy thus holds great promise for the rational construction of high-performance electrocatalysts toward NRR.