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Abstract

Nitrogen-doped carbon-based materials have been recently explored as promising electrocatalysts for N₂ fixation. Herein, a nitrogen-doped carbon film as a self-standing electrode is synthesized through a novel and scalable strategy. After the film synthesis, a thin layer of Au nanoparticles is deposited, significantly enhancing the performance of such films in electrocatalytic N₂ reduction. Owing to the exposed active sites and unique free-standing structure, it shows desirable performance towards electrochemical N₂ fixation with a high Faradaic efficiency of 6.4 %, and a NH₃ production rate of 18.3 μg h⁻¹ cm⁻² at a low given potential of -0.05 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode. Such performance is superior in comparison with Au-nanoparticles-modified nitrogen-doped carbon powder. Further comparison of nitrogen-doped carbon film and nitrogen-doped carbon powder also demonstrates the benefits of the free-standing structure in comparison to film-based materials in terms of charge transfer and active sites per electrode surface area.