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

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.