Preparation and functionalization of free-standing nitrogen-doped carbon-based catalyst electrodes for electrocatalytic N2 fixation

•Nitrogen-doped carbon-based materials have been recently explored as promising electrocatalysts for N2 fixation.•A novel synthesis approach was applied to obtain nitrogen-doped carbon-based materials as an electrocatalyst for N2 fixation.•These synthesized free-standing electrodes showed superior electrocatalytic performance with respect to powders form.•The free-standing nitrogen-doped carbon based electrodes possess benefits in terms of charge transfer and active sites per electrode surface area.