Synergistic rare-earth yttrium single atoms and copper phosphide nanoparticles for high-selectivity ammonia electrosynthesis

Electrochemical nitrate reduction to NH3 holds a great promise for N-upcycling in nature, while its sluggish reaction kinetics involved in both the stepwise deoxygenation and hydrogenation processes necessitates the development of bespoke catalysts with multi-site engineering. Herein, we report a hybrid catalyst composed of rare-earth (RE) yttrium (Y) single atoms and copper phosphide (Cu3P) nanoparticles loaded on N, P-doped carbon (YSA-Cu3P/CNP) through a chelating and pyrolysis method. Owing to a synergistic contribution of Y single atoms and Cu3P nanoparticles, YSA-Cu3P/CNP achieves an impressive NH3 Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 92