Making ammonia from nitrogen and water microdroplets

Xiaowei Song; Chanbasha Basheer; Richard N. Zare

doi:10.1073/pnas.2301206120

Making ammonia from nitrogen and water microdroplets

Xiaowei Song
, Chanbasha Basheer^*
, Richard N. Zare^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

108 Scopus citations

Abstract

Water (H₂O) microdroplets are sprayed onto a magnetic iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) and Nafion-coated graphite mesh using compressed N₂ or air as the nebulizing gas. The resulting splash of microdroplets enters a mass spectrometer and is found to contain ammonia (NH₃). This gas-liquid-solid heterogeneous catalytic system synthesizes ammonia in 0.2 ms. The conversion rate reaches 32.9 ± 1.38 nmol s⁻¹ cm⁻² at room temperature without application of an external electric potential and without irradiation. Water microdroplets are the hydrogen source for N₂ in contact with Fe₃O₄. Hydrazine (H₂NNH₂) is also observed as a by-product and is suspected to be an intermediate in the formation of ammonia. This one-step nitrogen-fixation strategy to produce ammonia is eco-friendly and low cost, which converts widely available starting materials into a value-added product.

Original language	English
Article number	e2301206120
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	120
Issue number	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301206120
State	Published - 18 Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

Keywords

ammonia formation
heterogeneous catalysis
water microdroplets

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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title = "Making ammonia from nitrogen and water microdroplets",

abstract = "Water (H2O) microdroplets are sprayed onto a magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) and Nafion-coated graphite mesh using compressed N2 or air as the nebulizing gas. The resulting splash of microdroplets enters a mass spectrometer and is found to contain ammonia (NH3). This gas-liquid-solid heterogeneous catalytic system synthesizes ammonia in 0.2 ms. The conversion rate reaches 32.9 ± 1.38 nmol s−1 cm−2 at room temperature without application of an external electric potential and without irradiation. Water microdroplets are the hydrogen source for N2 in contact with Fe3O4. Hydrazine (H2NNH2) is also observed as a by-product and is suspected to be an intermediate in the formation of ammonia. This one-step nitrogen-fixation strategy to produce ammonia is eco-friendly and low cost, which converts widely available starting materials into a value-added product.",

keywords = "ammonia formation, heterogeneous catalysis, water microdroplets",

author = "Xiaowei Song and Chanbasha Basheer and Zare, \{Richard N.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).",

year = "2023",

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doi = "10.1073/pnas.2301206120",

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T1 - Making ammonia from nitrogen and water microdroplets

AU - Song, Xiaowei

AU - Basheer, Chanbasha

AU - Zare, Richard N.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

PY - 2023/4/18

Y1 - 2023/4/18

N2 - Water (H2O) microdroplets are sprayed onto a magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) and Nafion-coated graphite mesh using compressed N2 or air as the nebulizing gas. The resulting splash of microdroplets enters a mass spectrometer and is found to contain ammonia (NH3). This gas-liquid-solid heterogeneous catalytic system synthesizes ammonia in 0.2 ms. The conversion rate reaches 32.9 ± 1.38 nmol s−1 cm−2 at room temperature without application of an external electric potential and without irradiation. Water microdroplets are the hydrogen source for N2 in contact with Fe3O4. Hydrazine (H2NNH2) is also observed as a by-product and is suspected to be an intermediate in the formation of ammonia. This one-step nitrogen-fixation strategy to produce ammonia is eco-friendly and low cost, which converts widely available starting materials into a value-added product.

AB - Water (H2O) microdroplets are sprayed onto a magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) and Nafion-coated graphite mesh using compressed N2 or air as the nebulizing gas. The resulting splash of microdroplets enters a mass spectrometer and is found to contain ammonia (NH3). This gas-liquid-solid heterogeneous catalytic system synthesizes ammonia in 0.2 ms. The conversion rate reaches 32.9 ± 1.38 nmol s−1 cm−2 at room temperature without application of an external electric potential and without irradiation. Water microdroplets are the hydrogen source for N2 in contact with Fe3O4. Hydrazine (H2NNH2) is also observed as a by-product and is suspected to be an intermediate in the formation of ammonia. This one-step nitrogen-fixation strategy to produce ammonia is eco-friendly and low cost, which converts widely available starting materials into a value-added product.

KW - ammonia formation

KW - heterogeneous catalysis

KW - water microdroplets

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85152113172

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2301206120

DO - 10.1073/pnas.2301206120

M3 - Article

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AN - SCOPUS:85152113172

SN - 0027-8424

VL - 120

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

IS - 16

M1 - e2301206120

ER -

Making ammonia from nitrogen and water microdroplets

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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