Design of novel catalysts
for the reduction of N2 to
ammonia has been urgently pursued because of various issues related
to the industrial reduction technology. In this work, we perform first-principles
calculations on the basis of the density-functional theory to control
the edges of two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal disulfides (TMDs),
including MoS2, WS2, VS2, NbS2, TiS2, and TaS2, for the achievement
of optimal efficiency in nitrogen-fixation. Our calculations show
that nitrogen molecules prefer to stay at the bridge-on sites of the
metal edges of TMD nanoribbons because of exothermic reactions. The
calculated energy barrier at each step illustrates that VS2 has the lowest potential-determining step of 0.16 eV in the distal
pathway, leading to its best catalytic activity in the N2 reduction reaction (NRR). Additionally, we find that the trend of
catalytic activity of 2D TMD nanoribbons is as follows: VS2 > NbS2 > TiS2 > MoS2 >
WS2 > TaS2. We show that charge transfer
is critical to the
reduction reaction. We further demonstrate that the edges of TMDs,
especially VS2, show a higher selectivity for NRR over
the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by investigating the competition
between HER and NRR. Our findings not only reveal the effect of the
edges of TMDs on NRR, but also provide theoretical support to the
reported experimental results in the literature. It is expectable
that the 2D TMD nanoribbons, especially VS2, may find application
for efficient N2-fixation. At the same time, our work may
guide the design of new catalysts for NRR.
We carry out our first-principles calculations within density functional theory to study the 3d transition metal (TM) doped AlN nanosheets. The calculated results indicate that a stoichiometric AlN nanosheet is graphene-like structure and nonmagnetic. The TM impurities can induce magnetic moments, localized mainly on the 3d TM atoms and neighboring N atoms. Our calculated results of TM-doped nanosheet systems indicate a strong interaction between 3d orbit of TM atom and the 2p orbit of N atoms. In addition, the Mn- and Ni-doped AlN nanosheet with half-metal characters seems to be good candidates for spintronic applications. When substituting two Al atoms, the relative energies of the states between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic coupling are investigated sufficiently. The exchange coupling of Co- and Ni-doped AlN nanosheets exhibits a transformation with different distances of two TM atoms and that of Cr-, Mn-, and Fe-doped AlN nanosheets is not changed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.