Cu-Bi Bimetallic Sulfides Loaded on Two-Dimensional Ti3C2Tx MXene for Efficient Electrocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction under Ambient Conditions

Rui Zhang; Yanjun Xue; Min Ma; Ye Han; Jian Tian

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c02869

Cu-Bi Bimetallic Sulfides Loaded on Two-Dimensional Ti₃C₂T_x MXene for Efficient Electrocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction under Ambient Conditions

Nano Lett. 2024 Aug 21;24(33):10297-10304. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c02869. Epub 2024 Aug 12.

Authors

Rui Zhang¹, Yanjun Xue¹, Min Ma¹, Ye Han¹, Jian Tian¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China.

PMID: 39133240
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c02869

Abstract

In this paper, Ti₃C₂T_x MXene/Cu-Bi bimetallic sulfide (Ti₃C₂T_x/BiCuS_2.5) composites were prepared by a simple in situ deposition method for electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR). Compared to Ti₃C₂T_x/Bi₂S₃ and Ti₃C₂T_x/CuS, the eNRR performance of Ti₃C₂T_x/BiCuS_2.5 is significantly improved. The results show that Ti₃C₂T_x/BiCuS_2.5 exhibits a NH₃ yield of 62.57 μg h^-1 mg^-1_cat. in 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ at -0.6 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode, and the Faradaic efficiency (FE) reaches 67.69%, which is better than that of Ti₃C₂T_x/CuS (NH₃ yield: 52.26 μg h^-1 mg^-1_cat., FE: 34.15%) and Ti₃C₂T_x/Bi₂S₃ (NH₃ yield: 54.04 μg h^-1 mg^-1_cat., FE: 37.38%). According to density functional theory calculations, the eNRR at the Ti₃C₂T_x/BiCuS_2.5 surface is the alternating pathway. The ¹H NMR experiment of ¹⁵N proves that the N of NH₃ generated in the experiment originates from N₂ passed during the experiment.

Keywords: BiCuS2.5; Ti3C2Tx MXene; bimetallic effect; electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction.