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Research Article

Highly efficient electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation enabled by the bridging effect of Ru in plasmonic nanoparticles

Hang Yin1Jinwu Hu2Caihong Fang2( )Yuyang Wang1Lixia Ma1Nan Zhang1Shouren Zhang3Ruibin Jiang1( )Jianfang Wang4
Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
College of Chemistry and Materials Science, The Key Laboratory of Functional Molecular Solids, Ministry of Education, Anhui Laboratory of Molecular-Based Materials, Center for Nano Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Clean Energy of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China
Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanocomposites and Applications, Institute of Nanostructured Functional Materials, Huanghe Science and Technology College, Zhengzhou 450006, China
Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
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Graphical Abstract

Ru d electrons strongly couple with the Au sp electrons, such a bridging role of Ru makes the direct hot electron transfer from Au to N2 possible, giving rise to more efficient transfer of hot electrons to nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) than hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).

Abstract

Plasmon-generated hot electrons show great potential for driving chemical reactions. The utilization efficiency of hot electrons is highly dependent on the interaction of the electronic states at the interfaces between plasmonic nanoparticles and other materials/molecules. Strong interaction can produce new hybridized electron states, which permit direct hot-electron transfer, a more efficient transfer mechanism. However, Au usually has very weak interaction with most molecules because of its inertness, which makes direct hot-electron transfer impossible. Herein, the improvement of the hot-electron transfer efficiency from Au to N2 is demonstrated by introducing a Ru bridging layer. Both the N2 fixation rate and Faradic efficiency (FE) are enhanced by the excitation of plasmons. The enhancement of the N2 fixation rate is found to arise from plasmon-generated hot electrons. Theoretical calculations show that the strong interaction of the Ru electronic states with the N2 molecular orbitals produces new hybridized electronic states, and the Ru d electrons also strongly couple with the Au sp electrons. Such a bridging role of Ru makes direct hot-electron transfer from Au to N2 possible, improving the FE of nitrogen fixation. Our findings demonstrate a new approach to increasing the utilization efficiency of plasmonic hot electrons for chemical reactions and will be helpful to the design of plasmonic catalysts in the future.

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Nano Research
Pages 360-370
Cite this article:
Yin H, Hu J, Fang C, et al. Highly efficient electrocatalytic nitrogen fixation enabled by the bridging effect of Ru in plasmonic nanoparticles. Nano Research, 2023, 16(1): 360-370. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4842-0
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Received: 01 June 2022
Revised: 16 July 2022
Accepted: 31 July 2022
Published: 05 September 2022
© Tsinghua University Press 2022
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