A CeP nanoparticle-reduced graphene oxide hybrid: an efficient electrocatalyst for the NH3 synthesis under ambient conditions

The Haber Bosch industrial NH3 production process has high energy consumption and severe CO2 emission. Electrochemical N2 reduction is an attractive method for the synthesis of carbon-neutral NH3. However, since an efficient electrocatalyst is required to perform the N2 reduction reaction (NRR) at room temperature, N2 activation is a severe challenge. Herein, we report a CeP nanoparticle–reduced graphene oxide (CeP–rGO) hybrid as an effective electrocatalyst for NH3 synthesis. In 0.1 M HCl, CeP–rGO achieves a large NH3 yield of 28.69 μg h−1 mgcat.−1 and a high faradaic efficiency of 9.6% at −0.40 V, and it also shows high electrochemical and structural stability. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that CeP can efficiently catalyze the synthesis of NH3.