Ambient electrochemical N₂ reduction is emerging as a highly promising alternative to the Haber–Bosch process but is typically hampered by a high reaction barrier and competing hydrogen evolution, leading to an extremely low Faradaic efficiency. Here, we demonstrate that under ambient conditions, a single-atom catalyst, iron on nitrogen-doped carbon, could positively shift the ammonia synthesis process to an onset potential of 0.193 V, enabling a dramatically enhanced Faradaic efficiency of 56.55%. The only doublet coupling representing ¹⁵NH₄⁺ in an isotopic labeling experiment confirms reliable NH₃ production data. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest efficient N₂ access to the single-atom iron with only a small energy barrier, which benefits preferential N₂ adsorption instead of H adsorption via a strong exothermic process, as further confirmed by first-principle calculations. The released energy helps promote the following process and the reaction bottleneck, which is widely considered to be the first hydrogenation step, is successfully overcome.

Lithium metal, the ideal anode material for rechargeable batteries, suffers from the inherent limitations of sensitivity to the humid atmosphere and dendrite growth. Herein, low-cost fabrication of a metallic-lithium anode that is stable in air and plated dendrite-free from an organic-liquid electrolyte solves four key problems that have plagued the development of large-scale Li-ion batteries for storage of electric power. Replacing the low-capacity carbon anode with a safe, dendrite-free lithium anode provides a fast charge while reducing the cost of fabrication of a lithium battery, and increasing the cycle life of a rechargeable cell by eliminating the liquid-electrolyte ethylene-carbonate additive used to form a solid-electrolyte interphase passivation layer on the anode that is unstable during cycling. This solution is accomplished by formation of a hydrophobic solid-electrolyte interphase on a metallic-lithium anode that allows for handling of the treated lithium anode membrane in a standard dry room during cell fabrication.