Electrochemical Ammonia Generation Directly from Nitrogen and Air Using an Iron-Oxide/Titania-Based Catalyst at Ambient Conditions

Revanasiddappa Manjunatha, Aleksandar Karajić, Valentina Goldstein, Alex Schechter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ammonia was produced electrochemically from nitrogen/air in aqueous alkaline electrolytes by using a Fe 2 O 3 /TiO 2 composite catalyst under room temperature and atmospheric pressure. At an applied potential of 0.023 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, the rate of ammonia formation was 1.25 × 10 -8 mmol mg -1 s -1 at an overpotential of just 34 mV. This rate increased to 2.7 × 10 -7 mmol mg -1 s -1 at â'0.577 V. The chronoamperometric experiments on Fe 2 O 3 /TiO 2 /C clearly confirmed that Fe 2 O 3 along with TiO 2 shows superior nitrogen reduction reaction activity compared to Fe 2 O 3 alone. Experimental parameters such as temperature and applied potential have a significant influence on the rate of ammonia formation. The activation energy of nitrogen reduction on the employed catalyst was found to be 25.8 kJ mol -1 . Real-time direct electrochemical mass spectrometry analysis was used to monitor the composition of the evolved gases at different electrode potentials.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7981-7989
Number of pages9
JournalACS applied materials & interfaces
Volume11
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Feb 2019

Keywords

  • ambient conditions
  • electrochemical mass spectrometry
  • iron oxide
  • nitrogen reduction reaction
  • titanium dioxide

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