Recent advances in strategies for highly selective electrocatalytic N2 reduction toward ambient NH3 synthesis

Abstract Industrial NH3 production synthesis mainly relies on the Haber-Bosch process, which is energy-intensive, heavily dependent on fossil fuels with massive greenhouse gas emission. Electrochemical N2-to-NH3 conversion is an attractive method to address this issue. The great challenge for this process is its limited selectivity because of the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction and the sluggish kinetics of N2 reduction reaction. In this review, we summarize recent progress in strategies in improving the NH3 selectivity for the electrochemical N2 reduction reaction, including electrocatalyst tuning, electrolyte choice and cell configuration design.