Solvothermal synthesis of α–CuPc nanostructures for electrochemical nitrogen fixation under ambient conditions

Electrocatalytic ammonia (NH3) synthesis under ambient conditions via the Nitrogen Reduction Reaction (NRR) presents a possible alternative to the century-old Haber-Bosch process. For electrochemical NRR, developing a high-performance electrocatalyst is a necessity. Herein, α–CuPc is an electrocatalyst that demonstrated NRR activity in 0.1 N HCl electrolyte solution with NH3 yield of 11.56 μg h−1 mg−1cat (–0.4 V vs RHE) and 6.29% (–0.3 V vs RHE) Faradaic efficiency at STP. Significantly, the electrocatalyst exhibits excellent stability (up to 10 h) and is recyclable for five times throughout the electrolysis process. The validity of nitrogen sources in NH3 generation is established through isotopic labelling studies and various control experiments. This work demonstrates the development of α–CuPc nanostructure for NH3 production via N2 fixation.