Abstract
Ammonia (NH(3)) is considered to be a critical chemical feedstock in agriculture, industry, and other fields. However, conventional Haber-Bosch (HB) ammonia (NH(3)) production suffers from high energy consumption, harsh reaction conditions, and large carbon dioxide emissions. Despite the emergence of electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogenous substances to NH(3) under ambient conditions as a new frontier, there are several bottleneck problems that impede the commercialization process. These include low catalytic efficiency, competition with the hydrogen evolution reaction, and difficulties in breaking the N≡N triple bond. In this review, we explore the recent advances in electrocatalytic NH(3) synthesis, using nitrogen and nitrate as reactants. We focus on the contribution of the catalyst design, specifically based on molecular-catalyst interaction mechanisms, as well as chemical bond breaking and directional coupling mechanisms, to address the aforementioned problems during electrocatalytic NH(3) synthesis. Finally, we discuss the relevant opportunities and challenges in this field.