21/09/2026
🌱 **A closer look at how catalysts choose between ammonia and hydrogen production**
Electrochemical nitrogen reduction offers a promising pathway to produce ammonia under mild conditioor challenge: the competing hydrogen evolution reaction can consume the same protons and electrons.
A new study published in **EcoMat** shows that simply knowing whether a catalyst prefers to adsorb nitrogen rather than hydrogen is not enough to predict its true selectivity.
Instead, the researchers identify the **first hydrogenation step** as a critical decision point. Once N₂ is adsorbed, the incoming hydrogen can either react with N₂ and continue toward ammonia formation—or occupy a neighboring catalytic site and trigger hydrogen evolution.
By combining advanced computational modeling with realistic solvation and potential-dependent kinetic analysis, the study finds that **Co₂@C₂N, Mo₂@C₂N, and W₂@C₂N** favor early nitrogen hydrogenation, while other catalysts can branch more readily toward hydrogen adsorption.
The findings provide a more realistic framework for screening and designing dual-atom catalysts for sustainable electrochemical ammonia synthesis.
📖 Read the article in EcoMat
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.70100
Solvated C2N-supported dual-metal sites reveal that NRR–HER selectivity is decided after N2 adsorption, when the first proton–electron transfer either hydrogenates *N2 or forms neighboring *H. Direct...
