2D Vanadium Carbide (MXene) for Electrochemical Synthesis of Ammonia Under Ambient Conditions

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are used in energy storage and conversion due to their unique electronic structure and large specific area. In this work, 2D vanadium carbide (V2CTx MXene) is fabricated and studied as an efficient and earth-abundant electrocatalyst for electrocatalytic N2 reduction reaction (NRR). When tested in 0.1 M Na2SO4, such electrocatalyst achieves a large NH3 yield rate of 12.6 μg h–1 mg–1cat. and a Faradaic efficiency of 4% at –0.7 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode. Theoretical calculations show a low reaction barrier of 0.88 eV in the distal route for this catalyst.