Modifying Microenvironment in Van der Waals Gap by Cu/N Co‐Doping Strategy for Highly Efficient Nitrite Reduction to Ammonia

Abstract Electroreduction of nitrite to ammonia has significant promise for economical NH 3 electrosynthesis and wastewater treatment. Herein, sulfur vacancies rich Cu─N co‐doped SnS 2 nanosheet is designed as a highly active and durable NO 2 RR catalyst. Benefiting from the Cu─N co‐doped strategy, Cu/N‐SnS 2‐x achieves the highest NH 3 yield rate of 18.15mg h −1 mg cat −1 at −0.935 V (vs RHE) and excellent Faradaic Efficiency of 95.73% at −0.835 V (vs RHE). In situ FT‐IR and in situ XPS proves that Cu/N‐SnS 2‐x has a greater capacity for atomic hydrogen generation, which facilitates the conversion of nitrite to ammonia and maintains excellent structural stability during the NO 2 RR process. Theoretical calculations reveal that the introduced sulfur vacancies effectively expose the metal atoms inside SnS 2 and make them adsorb nitrite efficiently, which effectively accelerates the transformation of nitrite to ammonia. Besides, the introduced Cu and N can form a new electronic structure, which induces Cu in an electron‐deficient state promotes the adsorption of reaction intermediates on Cu, and reduces the reaction energy barrier for nitrite reduction on the Cu/N‐SnS 2‐x surface. The current exploration presents fresh prospects for the rational development of an effective electrocatalyst for synthesizing ammonia from nitrite.