Issue 8, 2017

Electrocatalytic synthesis of ammonia by surface proton hopping

Abstract

Highly efficient ammonia synthesis at a low temperature is desirable for future energy and material sources. We accomplished efficient electrocatalytic low-temperature ammonia synthesis with the highest yield ever reported. The maximum ammonia synthesis rate was 30 099 μmol gcat−1 h−1 over a 9.9 wt% Cs/5.0 wt% Ru/SrZrO3 catalyst, which is a very high rate. Proton hopping on the surface of the heterogeneous catalyst played an important role in the reaction, revealed by in situ IR measurements. Hopping protons activate N2 even at low temperatures, and they moderate the harsh reaction condition requirements. Application of an electric field to the catalyst resulted in a drastic decrease in the apparent activation energy from 121 kJ mol−1 to 37 kJ mol−1. N2 dissociative adsorption is markedly promoted by the application of the electric field, as evidenced by DFT calculations. The process described herein opens the door for small-scale, on-demand ammonia synthesis.

Graphical abstract: Electrocatalytic synthesis of ammonia by surface proton hopping

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
22 Feb 2017
Accepted
20 May 2017
First published
05 Jun 2017
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2017,8, 5434-5439

Electrocatalytic synthesis of ammonia by surface proton hopping

R. Manabe, H. Nakatsubo, A. Gondo, K. Murakami, S. Ogo, H. Tsuneki, M. Ikeda, A. Ishikawa, H. Nakai and Y. Sekine, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 5434 DOI: 10.1039/C7SC00840F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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