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Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) for NH3generation under ambient conditions presents a promising alternative to the conventional Haber–Bosch process. Here, we report a Fe single-atom catalyst for ambient electrochemical NH3synthesis. This catalyst achieves high Faradaic efficiency (18.6 ± 0.8%) and NH3yield rate (62.9 ± 2.7 μg h−1mgcat.−1) in neutral aqueous electrolyte at room temperature and −0.4 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Furthermore, this catalyst exhibits a negligible activity decay during electrolysis for 24 h. X-ray absorption fine structure analyses and theoretical calculations reveal that atomically dispersed single Fe species are stabilized by N in Fe–N4 configuration, which is favorable for N2activation. This work opens new opportunities for developing advanced single atomic site catalysts for NH3synthesis via NRR.

Bi4Ti3O12is one of the Aurivillius-type layered perovskite oxides with superior photocatalytic effect, however, the further enhancement of this effect is limited by the high recombination rate of photo-generated carriers. Here, piezo-phototronic effect was employed to significantly improve the photocatalytic performance of Bi4Ti3O12nanoplates synthesized by molten-salt method. Under light and ultrasonic excitations, the screening effect of the built-in electric field caused by ferroelectric polarization can be broken by the alternating piezoelectric potential due to the periodic mechanical stress, and thus the reaction rate kof piezo-photocatalytic degradation of RhB reaches 0.1414 min−1which is 5.6 times of piezocatalytic kvalue and 2.1 times of photocatalytic kvalue. This kvalue is much larger than that of Bi4Ti3O12nanoplates and Bi4Ti3O12nanoflowers synthesized by solid-state reaction method and hydrothermal method, respectively. Due to the good balance of size, shape, crystallinity and specific surface area, Bi4Ti3O12nanoplates synthesized by molten-salt method exhibit better piezo-photocatalytic performance for degrading RhB. This work is helpful to develop other efficient piezo-photocatalysts.