Au₁Co₁ Alloy Supported on Graphene Oxide with Enhanced Performance for Ambient Electrolysis of Nitrogen to Ammonia

Designing efficient electrocatalysts with optimized elements and compositions is of great significance for enhancing the performance of the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). Herein we synthesized the alloyed Au₁Co₁ (atomic ratio Au/Co = 1) nanoparticles dispersed on graphene oxide (GO), which was applied to the NRR in K₂SO₄ electrolyte under ambient conditions. Benefiting from the optimized elemental composition and synergistic interactions of Au and Co, the prepared Au₁Co₁@GO exhibited superior electrocatalytic performance with a 36.82 μg h^–1 mg_cat.^–1 NH₃ yield and 22.03% faradaic efficiency of −0.2 V (vs RHE). Density functional theory calculations revealed that alloyed Co into Au could effectively decrease the nitrogen adsorption free energy and activate the NN bond, confirming that the Au₁Co₁ alloy effectively catalyzes the N₂ reduction to NH₃.