Publication date: 15th December 2025
Ammonia is a very important chemical compound used across various industries. Due to the large carbon footprint of the traditional method of ammonia synthesis via the Haber-Bosch process, there is urgent need for alternative methods.[1] The direct electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR), which involves direct hydrogen addition to nitrogen via proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) on an electrode or catalyst, is an attractive method due to its small equilibrium potential.[2] However, this method never truly met its potential as direct eNRR in aqueous solution suffers from a low faradaic efficiency and yield rates. The main reason for low eNRR activity is the competition with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), where N2 surface coverage is dominant at only a narrow cathodic potential window due to the different electron transfer nature of N2 and H surface adsorption.[3]
One approach to mitigate HER dominance is electrolyte engineering.[4] For example, a methanol-water electrolyte was used to control the local proton concentrations at the electrode-electrolyte interface, resulting in a faradaic efficiency of 75.9%.[5] Another example could be the use of Lewis acid in aqueous solution to increase N2 solubility and facilitate its surface adsorption.[6]
In this work, we propose steric hindrance as a new descriptor for proton donors to boost the selectivity of the NRR in non-aqueous electrolytes. Through kinetic studies using DFT calculations and microkinetic modeling, our results show that steric hindrance of proton donors could be leveraged to improve NRR selectivity. The origins of Two different proton donor groups are explored to validate the generality of this descriptor. This research will provide a guide and facilitate new electrolyte designs for electrochemical reactions.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.