Enhanced Nitric Oxide Electroreduction to Ammonia via Modulating Spin‐Polarization of Fe Single‐Atom Catalysts
Abstract Electrochemical nitric oxide reduction (NORR) offers a sustainable pathway to ammonia (NH 3 ) while removing toxic NO from industrial emissions. However, high efficiency is hindered by the difficulty of synchronizing multi‐proton/electron transfers to accelerate NO hydrogenation and suppress competing hydrogen evolution. Here, an Fe single‐atom catalyst (FeSAC) is reported that achieves record NORR activity through spin‐state engineering. Using a top‐down electrospinning approach, self‐supported S,N‐doped carbon fiber films hosting Fe‐N 3 S 1 sites are fabricated. This catalyst delivers an NH 3 yield rate of 140.58 µmol h −1 cm −2 with a Faradaic efficiency of 96.28%, outperforming nearly all reported SACs. Mechanistic analysis reveals that sulfur doping induces a high‐spin Fe 3+ → low‐spin Fe 2+ transition, suppressing spin polarization, strengthening NO adsorption, and facilitating proton supply to accelerate hydrogenation. These results establish spin‐state modulation as a powerful paradigm for designing next‐generation single‐atom catalysts for complex multi‐proton/electron electrocatalytic transformations, such as the electrosynthesis of ammonia.
Authors
- Jialing Song
- Ming Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2729-9746)
- Zhiyi Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9052-6732)
- Eslam M. Hamed (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0717-3134)
- Dengsong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4280-0068)
- Sam Fong Yau Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2092-9226)
- Emiliano Cortés (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8248-4165)
- Chunwei Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5788-8819)
- Chenghao Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7294-2238)
- Xiyang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7591-6676)
- Donglin Han
- Haiyan Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2094-8195)
- Zhenlin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9066-7707)
- Lupeng Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7690-5832)
Institutions
- Shanghai International Studies University (CN)
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- University of Bath (GB)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2025-11-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202523040
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.78