Surface-Regulated Rhodium-Antimony Nanorods for Nitrogen Fixation

Surface regulation is an effective strategy to improve the performance of catalysts, but it has been rarely demonstrated for nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) to date. Now, surface-rough Rh2Sb nanorod (RNR) and surface-smooth Rh2Sb NR (SNR) were selectively created, and their performance for NRR was investigated. The high-index-facet bounded Rh2Sb RNRs/C exhibit a high NH3 yield rate of 228.85 +/- 12.96 mu g h(-1) mg(Rh)(-1) at -0.45 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), outperforming the Rh2Sb SNRs/C (63.07 +/- 4.45 mu g h(-1) mg(Rh)(-1)) and Rh nanoparticles/C (22.82 +/- 1.49 mu g h(-1) mg(Rh)(-1)), owing to the enhanced adsorption and activation of N-2 on high-index facets. Rh2Sb RNRs/C also show durable stability with negligible activity decay after 10 h of successive electrolysis. The present work demonstrates that surface regulation plays an important role in promoting NRR activity and provides a new strategy for creating efficient NRR electrocatalysts.