Sulfur-doped graphene anchoring of ultrafine Au 25 nanoclusters for electrocatalysis

The biggest challenge of exploring the catalytic properties of under-coordinated nanoclusters is the issue of stability. We demonstrate herein that chemical dopants on sulfur-doped graphene (S-G) can be utilized to stabilize ultrafine (sub-2 nm) Au 25 (PET) 18 clusters to enable stable nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) without significant structural degradation. The Au 25 @S-G exhibits an ammonia yield rate of 27.5 μg_NH_3·mg_Au^ - 1·h^ - 1 at −0.5 V with faradic efficiency of 2.3