Volume 21, Issue 3 2408243
Research Article

Structural and Electronic Modulations of Se-Vacancy-Rich MoSe2 Triggered by Cr Doping toward Robust Nitrogen Reduction Reaction

Zhuangzhi Wu

Zhuangzhi Wu

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083 China

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Shuaiting Lv

Shuaiting Lv

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083 China

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Ruoqi Liu

Ruoqi Liu

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083 China

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Ting Guo

Ting Guo

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083 China

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Dezhi Wang

Dezhi Wang

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083 China

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Hao Fei

Corresponding Author

Hao Fei

School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR 999077 China

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083 China

E-mail: [email protected]

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First published: 22 November 2024
Citations: 1

Abstract

The electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) is proposed as an alternative to the Haber–Bosch process, but the development of efficient NRR electrocatalysts remains a challenging task. MoSe2 has superior conductivity compared to MoS2, making it promising in the NRR field. Unfortunately, the scarcity of active sites and competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) hinder its broader applications. Here, Se-vacancy-rich MoSe2 is designed through Cr doping, allowing for targeted regulations of architectural and electronic structure by leveraging the dual effects of doping and VSe. Further mechanistic studies innovatively find that the Cr-induced multi-vacancy (18.75% concentration) exerts inverse contributions to NRR on 2H- and 1T-MoSe2, reflecting boosted and depressed effects, respectively. Consequently, suitable doping effectively facilitates NRR and eases the competition from HER, realizing excellent NH3 yield (51.53 ± 2.45 µg h−1 mg−1cat) and Faradaic efficiency (63.37%) in MSC-1. This work paves the opportunity for MoSe2-based electrocatalysts toward boosted NRR.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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