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The why and how of NOx electroreduction to ammonia

Nature Catalysis volume 6, pages 1125–1130 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Electroreduction of the oxidized forms of nitrogen (NOx) has been studied for decades, with the most recent intense research focusing on the conversion of nitrate to ammonia. Here we discuss how such technology might, or might not, be able to contribute to sustainable ammonia (NH3) production and highlight its conceptual and experimental differences from the electrosynthesis of NH3 from dinitrogen. A generic experimental protocol for NOx-to-NH3 studies is proposed and discussed along with the situations where control experiments with a 15N-labelled nitrogen source may not be required.

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Fig. 1: Possible pathways for the sustainable electrosynthesis of NH3.
Fig. 2: Nitrate-to-NH3/ammonium reports.
Fig. 3: Simplified protocol for NOx-to-NH3 studies.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Australian Research Council for financial support (project no. DP200101878 and Future Fellowship FT200100317 to A.N.S.).

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  1. School of Chemistry, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Jason John, Douglas R. MacFarlane & Alexandr N. Simonov

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  1. Jason John
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  2. Douglas R. MacFarlane
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All authors contributed to the preparation and writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Douglas R. MacFarlane or Alexandr N. Simonov.

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Competing interests

D.R.M. and A.N.S. have minority equity ownership, as well as management and consulting roles, in a spin-out company, Jupiter Ionics Pty Ltd, that is scaling up the Li-mediated NH3 electrosynthesis technology.

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John, J., MacFarlane, D.R. & Simonov, A.N. The why and how of NOx electroreduction to ammonia. Nat Catal 6, 1125–1130 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-023-01060-w

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