Boron-Insertion-Induced Lattice Engineering of Rh Nanocrystals Toward Enhanced Electrocatalytic Conversion of Nitric Oxide to Ammonia

Peng Han; Xiangou Xu; Weiwei Chen; Long Zheng; Chen Ma; Gang Wang; Lei Xu; Ping Gu; Wenbin Wang; Qiyuan He; Zhiyuan Zeng; Jinlan Wang; Dong Su; Chongyi Ling; Zhengxiang Gu; Ye Chen

doi:10.1007/s40820-025-01919-6

Boron-Insertion-Induced Lattice Engineering of Rh Nanocrystals Toward Enhanced Electrocatalytic Conversion of Nitric Oxide to Ammonia

Peng Han (Co-first Author), Xiangou Xu (Co-first Author), Weiwei Chen, Long Zheng, Chen Ma, Gang Wang, Lei Xu, Ping Gu, Wenbin Wang, Qiyuan He, Zhiyuan Zeng, Jinlan Wang, Dong Su, Chongyi Ling^*, Zhengxiang Gu^*, Ye Chen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

Abstract

Electrocatalytic nitric oxide (NO) reduction reaction (NORR) is a promising and sustainable process that can simultaneously realize green ammonia (NH₃) synthesis and hazardous NO removal. However, current NORR performances are far from practical needs due to the lack of efficient electrocatalysts. Engineering the lattice of metal-based nanomaterials via phase control has emerged as an effective strategy to modulate their intrinsic electrocatalytic properties. Herein, we realize boron (B)-insertion-induced phase regulation of rhodium (Rh) nanocrystals to obtain amorphous Rh₄B nanoparticles (NPs) and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) RhB NPs through a facile wet-chemical method. A high Faradaic efficiency (92.1 ± 1.2%) and NH3 yield rate (629.5 ± 11.0 µmol h⁻¹ cm⁻²) are achieved over hcp RhB NPs, far superior to those of most reported NORR nanocatalysts. In situ spectro-electrochemical analysis and density functional theory simulations reveal that the excellent electrocatalytic performances of hcp RhB NPs are attributed to the upshift of d-band center, enhanced NO adsorption/activation profile, and greatly reduced energy barrier of the rate-determining step. A demonstrative Zn–NO battery is assembled using hcp RhB NPs as the cathode and delivers a peak power density of 4.33 mW cm⁻², realizing simultaneous NO removal, NH₃ synthesis, and electricity output. © The Author(s) 2025.

Original language	English
Article number	74
Number of pages	18
Journal	Nano-Micro Letters
Volume	18
Online published	5 Oct 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01919-6
Publication status	Published - 2026

Funding

YC acknolwedges the funding support from General Research Fund [Project No. 14300525] from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong SAR, China. The authors acknowledge the funding support from Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientists Fund (Project No. 22305203) and NSFC Projects Nos. 22309123, 22422303, 22303011, 22033002, 92261112 and U21A20328. YC thanks the support from the Hong Kong Branch of National Precious Metals Material Engineering Research Center (NPMM) at City University of Hong Kong. The authors thank the computational resources from the Big Data Computing Center of Southeast University. YC and ZZ thank the support from Young Collaborative Research Grant [Project No. C1003-23Y] support from RGC of Hong Kong SAR, China.

Research Keywords

Electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis
Lattice engineering of nanomaterials
Metal nanocatalysts
Nitric oxide reduction reaction
Phase engineering of nanomaterials
Wet-chemical synthesis

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

RGC Funding Information

RGC-funded

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title = "Boron-Insertion-Induced Lattice Engineering of Rh Nanocrystals Toward Enhanced Electrocatalytic Conversion of Nitric Oxide to Ammonia",

abstract = "Electrocatalytic nitric oxide (NO) reduction reaction (NORR) is a promising and sustainable process that can simultaneously realize green ammonia (NH3) synthesis and hazardous NO removal. However, current NORR performances are far from practical needs due to the lack of efficient electrocatalysts. Engineering the lattice of metal-based nanomaterials via phase control has emerged as an effective strategy to modulate their intrinsic electrocatalytic properties. Herein, we realize boron (B)-insertion-induced phase regulation of rhodium (Rh) nanocrystals to obtain amorphous Rh4B nanoparticles (NPs) and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) RhB NPs through a facile wet-chemical method. A high Faradaic efficiency (92.1 ± 1.2%) and NH3 yield rate (629.5 ± 11.0 µmol h−1 cm−2) are achieved over hcp RhB NPs, far superior to those of most reported NORR nanocatalysts. In situ spectro-electrochemical analysis and density functional theory simulations reveal that the excellent electrocatalytic performances of hcp RhB NPs are attributed to the upshift of d-band center, enhanced NO adsorption/activation profile, and greatly reduced energy barrier of the rate-determining step. A demonstrative Zn–NO battery is assembled using hcp RhB NPs as the cathode and delivers a peak power density of 4.33 mW cm−2, realizing simultaneous NO removal, NH3 synthesis, and electricity output. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2025.",

keywords = "Electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis, Lattice engineering of nanomaterials, Metal nanocatalysts, Nitric oxide reduction reaction, Phase engineering of nanomaterials, Wet-chemical synthesis",

author = "Peng Han and Xiangou Xu and Weiwei Chen and Long Zheng and Chen Ma and Gang Wang and Lei Xu and Ping Gu and Wenbin Wang and Qiyuan He and Zhiyuan Zeng and Jinlan Wang and Dong Su and Chongyi Ling and Zhengxiang Gu and Ye Chen",

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doi = "10.1007/s40820-025-01919-6",

language = "English",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Boron-Insertion-Induced Lattice Engineering of Rh Nanocrystals Toward Enhanced Electrocatalytic Conversion of Nitric Oxide to Ammonia

AU - Han, Peng

AU - Xu, Xiangou

AU - Chen, Weiwei

AU - Zheng, Long

AU - Ma, Chen

AU - Wang, Gang

AU - Xu, Lei

AU - Gu, Ping

AU - Wang, Wenbin

AU - He, Qiyuan

AU - Zeng, Zhiyuan

AU - Wang, Jinlan

AU - Su, Dong

AU - Ling, Chongyi

AU - Gu, Zhengxiang

AU - Chen, Ye

PY - 2026

Y1 - 2026

N2 - Electrocatalytic nitric oxide (NO) reduction reaction (NORR) is a promising and sustainable process that can simultaneously realize green ammonia (NH3) synthesis and hazardous NO removal. However, current NORR performances are far from practical needs due to the lack of efficient electrocatalysts. Engineering the lattice of metal-based nanomaterials via phase control has emerged as an effective strategy to modulate their intrinsic electrocatalytic properties. Herein, we realize boron (B)-insertion-induced phase regulation of rhodium (Rh) nanocrystals to obtain amorphous Rh4B nanoparticles (NPs) and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) RhB NPs through a facile wet-chemical method. A high Faradaic efficiency (92.1 ± 1.2%) and NH3 yield rate (629.5 ± 11.0 µmol h−1 cm−2) are achieved over hcp RhB NPs, far superior to those of most reported NORR nanocatalysts. In situ spectro-electrochemical analysis and density functional theory simulations reveal that the excellent electrocatalytic performances of hcp RhB NPs are attributed to the upshift of d-band center, enhanced NO adsorption/activation profile, and greatly reduced energy barrier of the rate-determining step. A demonstrative Zn–NO battery is assembled using hcp RhB NPs as the cathode and delivers a peak power density of 4.33 mW cm−2, realizing simultaneous NO removal, NH3 synthesis, and electricity output. © The Author(s) 2025.

AB - Electrocatalytic nitric oxide (NO) reduction reaction (NORR) is a promising and sustainable process that can simultaneously realize green ammonia (NH3) synthesis and hazardous NO removal. However, current NORR performances are far from practical needs due to the lack of efficient electrocatalysts. Engineering the lattice of metal-based nanomaterials via phase control has emerged as an effective strategy to modulate their intrinsic electrocatalytic properties. Herein, we realize boron (B)-insertion-induced phase regulation of rhodium (Rh) nanocrystals to obtain amorphous Rh4B nanoparticles (NPs) and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) RhB NPs through a facile wet-chemical method. A high Faradaic efficiency (92.1 ± 1.2%) and NH3 yield rate (629.5 ± 11.0 µmol h−1 cm−2) are achieved over hcp RhB NPs, far superior to those of most reported NORR nanocatalysts. In situ spectro-electrochemical analysis and density functional theory simulations reveal that the excellent electrocatalytic performances of hcp RhB NPs are attributed to the upshift of d-band center, enhanced NO adsorption/activation profile, and greatly reduced energy barrier of the rate-determining step. A demonstrative Zn–NO battery is assembled using hcp RhB NPs as the cathode and delivers a peak power density of 4.33 mW cm−2, realizing simultaneous NO removal, NH3 synthesis, and electricity output. © The Author(s) 2025.

KW - Electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis

KW - Lattice engineering of nanomaterials

KW - Metal nanocatalysts

KW - Nitric oxide reduction reaction

KW - Phase engineering of nanomaterials

KW - Wet-chemical synthesis

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U2 - 10.1007/s40820-025-01919-6

DO - 10.1007/s40820-025-01919-6

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

C2 - 41046270

SN - 2311-6706

VL - 18

JO - Nano-Micro Letters

JF - Nano-Micro Letters

M1 - 74

ER -

Boron-Insertion-Induced Lattice Engineering of Rh Nanocrystals Toward Enhanced Electrocatalytic Conversion of Nitric Oxide to Ammonia

Abstract

Funding

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

RGC Funding Information

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YCRG-Sub-pj: Electrochemical Lithium Intercalation & Exfoliation for Mass Production of 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and their Application for Water Purification

YCRG: Electrochemical Lithium Intercalation & Exfoliation for Mass Production of 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and their Application for Water Purification

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