Boosting electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis from nitrate by asymmetric chemical potential activated interfacial electric fields.

The electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reaction (NO RR) has immense potential to alleviate the problem of groundwater pollution and may also become a key route for the environmentally benign production of ammonia (NH) products. Here, the unique effects of interfacial electric fields arising from asymmetric chemical potentials and local defects were integrated into the binary BiS-BiO sublattices for enhancing electrocatalytic nitrate reduction reactions. The obtained binary system showed a superior Faraday efficiency (FE) for ammonia production of 94 % and an NH yield rate of 89.