Industrially, N2 reduction to NH3 is performed via the Haber–Bosch process at high temperature and pressure.(1-5) The process uses hydrogen from natural gas or other fossil resources, and the production of ammonia, mainly for fertilizers, accounts for more than 1% of the total fossil energy consumption on Earth.(6) The development of an efficient electrochemical process to reduce N2 to NH3 under ambient conditions using energy from solar or wind sources would enable a sustainable process for making fertilizers and energy carriers. An additional advantage of such a process would be that it could be implemented at the point of fertilizer use, avoiding the distribution infrastructure that is currently absent in less-developed parts of the world.(7) NH3produced from electrochemical N2 reduction may also be used as a carbon-free fuel.(8, 9)
Aayush R. Singh, Brian A. Rohr, Jay A. Schwalbe, Matteo Cargnello, Karen Chan, Thomas F. Jaramillo, Ib Chorkendorff and Jens K. Nørskov
ACS Catal., 2017, 7 (1), pp 706–709
DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.6b03035
Publication Date (Web): December 7, 2016
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