Conversion of naturally abundant nitrogen to ammonia is a key (bio)chemical process to sustain life and represents a major challenge in chemistry and biology. Electrochemical reduction is emerging as a sustainable strategy for artificial nitrogen fixation at ambient conditions by tackling the hydrogen- and energy-intensive operations of the Haber–Bosch process. However, it is severely challenged by nitrogen activation and requires efficient catalysts for the nitrogen reduction reaction. Here we report that a boron carbide nanosheet acts as a metal-free catalyst for high-performance electrochemical nitrogen-to-ammonia fixation at ambient conditions. The catalyst can achieve a high ammonia yield of 26.57 μg h^–1 mg^–1_cat. and a fairly high Faradaic efficiency of 15.95% at –0.75 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, placing it among the most active aqueous-based nitrogen reduction reaction electrocatalysts. Notably, it also shows high electrochemical stability and excellent selectivity. The catalytic mechanism is assessed using density functional theory calculations.

An iodide-derived nanostructured silver catalyst (ID-Ag) is able to electrochemically reduce CO₂to CO with approximately 94.5% selectivity at the potential of −0.7 V in CO₂-saturated 0.5 M KHCO₃. This value is much higher than that of Ag foil under identical conditions.

In situ-derived boron-doped graphene quantum dots can significantly improve the activity of boron carbide nanosheets for artificial N₂fixation.