The electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate toward ammonia under mild conditions addresses many challenges of the Haber-Bosch reaction, providing a sustainable method for ammonia synthesis, yet it is limited by sluggish reduction kinetics and multiple competing reactions. Here, the titanium hydride electrocatalyst is synthesized by electrochemical hydrogenation reconstruction of titanium fiber paper, which achieves a large ammonia yield rate of 83.64 mg h −1 cm −2 and a high Faradaic efficiency of 99.11% with an ampere-level current density of 1.05 A cm −2 at −0.7 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. Electrochemical evaluation and kinetic studies indicate that the lattice hydrogen transfer from titanium hydride promotes the electrocatalytic performance of nitrate reduction reaction and the reversible equilibrium reaction between lattice hydrogen and activate hydrogen not only improves the electrocatalytic activity of nitrate reduction reaction but also demonstrates notable catalytic stability. These finding offers a universal design principle for metal hydrides as catalysts for effectively electrochemical ammonia production, highlighting their potential for sustainable ammonia synthesis.
Hydrogen adsorption and desorption in single-phase catalysts often occur at a single catalytic site based on the traditional hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) pathway, which makes it difficult to break the limitation entailed by the Sabatier principle. Herein, β-Pd hydride metallene (β-PdHene) aerogels are synthesized as advanced HER catalysts. A lattice hydrogen-involved mechanism is reported to separate adsorption and desorption sites, which is thermodynamically favorable compared to the traditional reaction pathway. In situ differential electrochemical mass spectrometry and theoretical calculations reveal that lattice hydrogen as additional active sites directly participate in the HER process. Consequently, β-PdHene aerogels exhibit a low overpotential of only 20 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and remarkable HER stability, which are even comparable to commercial Pt/C. Our work opens an avenue to rationally develop highly active HER catalysts, bypassing the design limitations of catalysts under traditional mechanisms.