Entropy-Driven Direct Air Electrofixation

According to the principles of chemical thermodynamics, the catalytic activation of small molecules (like N2 in air and CO2 in flue gas) generally exhibits a negative activity dependence on O2 owning to the competitive oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Nevertheless, some catalysts can show positive activity dependence for N2 electrofixation, an important route to produce ammonia under ambient condition. Here we report that the positive activity dependence on O2 of (Ni0.20Co0.20Fe0.20Mn0.19Mo0.21)3S4 catalyst arises from high-entropy mechanism. Through experimental and theoretical studies, we demonstrate that under the reaction condition in the mixed N2/O2, the adsorption of O2 on high-entropy catalyst contributes to activating N2 molecules characteristic of elongated N equivalent to N bond lengths. As comparison to the low- and medium-entropy counterparts, high entropy can play the second role of attenuating competitive ORR by displaying a negative exponential entropy-ORR activity relationship. Accordingly, benefiting from the O2, the system for direct air electrofixation has demonstrated an ammonia yield rate of 47.70 mu g h-1 cm-2, which is even 1.5 times of pure N2 feedstock (31.92 mu g h-1 cm-2), overtaking all previous reports for this reaction. We expect the present finding providing an additional dimension to high entropy that leverages systems beyond the constraint of traditional rules. By utilizing a high-entropy mechanism, this study uncovers an abnormal phenomenon where oxygen adsorption elongates the N equivalent to N bond, boosting the activation of N2 molecules. The high entropy also significantly reduces the competitive oxygen reduction reaction, resulting in an unprecedented ammonia yield rate. This discovery opens an avenue for high-entropy research toward practical applications. image