Ferromagnetic Fe-TiO2 spin catalysts for enhanced ammonia electrosynthesis

Jingnan Wang, Kaiheng Zhao, Yongbin Yao, Fan Xue, Fei Lu, Wensheng Yan, Fangli Yuan and Xi Wang ()
Additional contact information
Jingnan Wang: Fuzhou University
Kaiheng Zhao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yongbin Yao: Beijing Jiaotong University
Fan Xue: Beijing Jiaotong University
Fei Lu: Yangzhou University
Wensheng Yan: University of Science and Technology of China
Fangli Yuan: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Xi Wang: Beijing Jiaotong University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Magnetic field effects (MFE) of ferromagnetic spin electrocatalysts have attracted significant attention due to their potential to enhance catalytic activity under an external magnetic field. However, no ferromagnetic spin catalysts have demonstrated MFE in the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate for ammonia (NO3RR), a pioneering approach towards NH3 production involving the conversion from diamagnetic NO3− to paramagnetic NO. Here, we report the ferromagnetic Fe-TiO2 to investigate MFE on NO3RR. Fe-TiO2 possesses a high density of atomically dispersed Fe sites and exhibits an intermediate-spin state, resulting in magnetic ordering through ferromagnetism. Assisted by a magnetic field, Fe-TiO2 achieves a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of up to 97% and an NH3 yield of 24.69 mg mgcat−1 at −0.5 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Compared to conditions without an external magnetic field, the FE and NH3 yield for Fe-TiO2 under an external magnetic field is increased by ~21.8% and ~ 3.1 times, respectively. In-situ characterization and theoretical calculations show that spin polarization enhances the critical step of NO hydrogenation to NOH by optimizing electron transfer pathways between Fe and NO, significantly boosting NO3RR activity.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56566-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-56566-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56566-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().