Engineering Abundant Edge Sites of Bismuth Nanosheets toward Superior Ambient Electrocatalytic Nitrogen Reduction via Topotactic Transformation

Production of efficient and cost-effective metal-based catalysts for NH3 quite challenging. In this work, metal bismuth (Bi) nanosheets with a single-crystalline structure supported on a carbon fiber paper were prepared through the in situ electrocatalytic topotactic transformation of bismuth iodide oxide nanosheets. These Bi nanosheets can be used as efficient non-noble metal catalysts for NRR, achieving an NH3 yield of 12.49 mu g h(-1) mg(cat.)(-1) and a high faradaic efficiency of 7.09%. Density functional theory calculations reveal that although the basal plane of Bi nanosheets is relatively inert, the exposed edge sites are conductive to the adsorption and activation of N-2 molecules. This work presents the significance of using the topotactic transformation strategy for NRR and provides an inspiration for the development of efficient metal-based catalysts.