Atomically Dispersed Uranium Enables an Unprecedentedly High NH Yield Rate.

The low NH yield rate is a grand challenge for electrocatalytic N reduction to NH. Herein, we report the first uranium single-atom catalyst (SAC) capable of catalyzing the electrochemical N reduction reaction (NRR). The uranium SAC features a low limiting potential (<0.5 V) and near-zero free energy changes for N adsorption and NH desorption. The integration of these merits enables the uranium SAC to afford an unprecedentedly high NH yield rate, 3-4 orders of magnitude higher than that of the Ru(0001) surface, which is widely recognized as an excellent NRR electrocatalyst. Further theoretical analysis reveals that the N reduction catalyzed by the uranium SAC is synergistically regulated by the and electrons of atomic uranium. This work proposes a promising solution (that is, atomically dispersed uranium) to the daunting challenge associated with the low NH yield rate, thus enabling the scalable production of NH via electrochemical N reduction.