Ammonia, one of the most important industrial chemicals, is considered as a next generation energy carrier due to its nature of high energy density and convenience of transportation and storage. Currently, most of the ammonia is produced by the Harber-Bosch process, which is a very energy consuming process as well as producing a huge amount of green house gases. As an alternative to overcome this limitation, electrochemical ways were proposed, which is a process that can synthesize ammonia in an environmental-friendly manner if electricity can be supplied from renewable energy like solar or wind power. However, high temperature condition required by the slow rate of nitrogen reduction reaction cause instability of catalyst, and decomposition of ammonia, resulting in a problem of the electrochemical process. Thus, relaxation of process condition is essential for electrochemical synthesis of ammonia to replace the Haber-Bosch process, and there is not enough promising result at room temperature and pressure. In this study, the iron-mediated synthesis of ammonia was demonstrated in room temperature, and the effect of on-site deposition of iron was studied. The voltage was applied to induce the deposition of iron, at the same time, it was confirmed that ammonia was synthesized. This approach can make a strong reducing agent, zero-valent iron, which is much simpler and can continue to design the process than conventional methods. Further research is needed on the exact mechanism of this phenomenon. Because iron is the most abundant and cheap atom in the world, electrochemical synthesis using iron deposition is very economical, and thus these approach is advantageous for commercialization.

Approach of electrochemical synthesis of ammonia from water and nitrogen using iron under ambient conditions

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.