Oxygen vacancy enhancing mechanism of nitrogen reduction reaction property in Ru/TiO2

To search the new effective nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) electrocatalyst is very important for the ammonia-based industry. Herein, we reported the design of a novel NRR electrocatalyst with Ru NPs loaded on oxygen-vacancy TiO2 (Ru/TiO2-Vo). Structural characterizations revealed that oxygen vacancy was loaded in the matrix of Ru/TiO2-Vo. Electrocatalytic results indicated that Ru/TiO2-Vo showed good NRR performance (2.11 mu g h(-1) cm(-2)). Contrast tests showed that NRR property of Ru/TiO2-Vo was much better than those of Ru/TiO2 (B) (0.53 mu g h(-1) cm(-2)) and Ru/P25 (0.42 mu g h(-1) cm(-2)). Furthermore, density functional theory calculation results indicated catalytic mechanism of NRR and rate-determining step (*N-2 + 1/2H(2) -> * N+* NH) was the potential-determining step with the overpotential requirement of 0.21 V. A combination of electronic structure analysis and catalytic measurement shed light on the synergistic effect of Ru and oxygen vacancy on the NRR performance. (C) 2019 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.