Oxygen-Doped Porous Carbon Nanosheet for Efficient N2 Fixation to NH3 at Ambient Conditions

NH3 is one of the largest-volume industrial chemicals synthesized in the world. It not only is a kind of important chemical base materials to produce fertilizers, plastics and explosives, but also can serve as a clean energy carrier with high hydrogen content for a sustainable energy supply. N-2 is the most abundant gas in atmosphere, but its inert character caused by the strong triple bond, impedes itself from being converted to NH3. In nature, this shortcoming is overcome by biological N-2 fixation utilizing nitrogenase enzymes. Industrially, fixation of N-2-to-NH3 prevailingly depends on Haber-Bosch process using Ru- or Fe-based catalysts, but this process consumes large energy and emits heavy carbon which increases crisis of global warming.