A mesoporous Au film with surface sulfur modification for efficient ammonia electrosynthesis

Electrocatalytic reduction of N2 is a promising alternative technology for the green and sustainable production of NH3. The development of this process is highly dependent on the identification of active electrocatalysts. Herein, a self-supported mesoporous Au-based film with sulfur decoration on Ni foam (S-mAu film/NF) has been synthesized by a micelle assembly replacement route. The obtained S-mAu film/NF exhibits superior electrochemical performance for nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), resulting in a high NH3 yield (22.7 μg h−1 mgcat.−1) and Faraday efficiency (17.2%) under neutral conditions. This work offers a facile strategy for the synthesis of a self-supported mesoporous architecture with surface sulfur modification, which is favourable to the improvement of the electrocatalytic NRR performance.