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Ammonia oxidation

Defying thermodynamics to synthetize hydrazine

Nature Catalysis volume 6, pages 868–869 (2023)Cite this article

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Selective electrochemical oxidation of ammonia provides an ideal pathway to synthesize hydrazine, but this process is outcompeted by a more favourable overoxidation to N2. A molecular ruthenium catalyst has now flipped the script, circumventing the thermodynamic challenges to selectively generate hydrazine.

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Fig. 1: Challenges and approaches in the electrosynthesis of hydrazine from ammonia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada and Unidad de Excelencia en Química (UEQ), Granada, Spain

    Pablo Garrido-Barros

  2. Department of Chemistry, Centro de Investigación en Síntesis Química (CISQ), Universidad de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain

    Ignacio Funes-Ardoiz

Authors
  1. Pablo Garrido-Barros
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  2. Ignacio Funes-Ardoiz
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Correspondence to Pablo Garrido-Barros or Ignacio Funes-Ardoiz.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Garrido-Barros, P., Funes-Ardoiz, I. Defying thermodynamics to synthetize hydrazine. Nat Catal 6, 868–869 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-023-01033-z

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