On the mechanism of electrochemical ammonia synthesis on the Ru catalyst

The nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) pathways involving various N–N dissociation steps are found to be comparable to the conventional associative mechanism. The competitive hydrogen adsorption and evolution is revealed to negatively affect the NRR for two reasons, an increase in NRR overpotentials as a function of partial H-coverages as well as a decreased number of active sites.