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AMMONIA SYNTHESIS

Recycling fertilizer

Efforts to electrochemically produce ammonia have mainly focused on dinitrogen as a feedstock. Now, an electrocatalyst composed of Cu embedded in an organic molecular solid is designed, which efficiently and selectively converts nitrate ions to ammonia, paving a way to nutrient recovery and recycling.

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Fig. 1: Existing and possible future nitrogen cycles for ammonia production and nutrient recovery.

References

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Correspondence to Lauren F. Greenlee.

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Greenlee, L.F. Recycling fertilizer. Nat Energy 5, 557–558 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0670-1

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