Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 9, 2025

Ammonia Synthesis at Low Pressure
Published on: August 23, 2017
Recent Advances and Perspective on Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis under Ambient Conditions
Yang Li1,2, Qi Zhang1, Zongwei Mei2
1Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.
Abstract:
Ammonia is an essential chemical for agriculture and industry. To date, NH3 is mainly supplied by the traditional Haber-Bosch process, which is operated under high-temperature and high-pressure in a centralized way. To achieve ammonia production in an environmentally benign way, electrochemical NH3 synthesis under ambient conditions has become the frontier of energy and chemical conversion schemes, as it can be powered by renewable energy and operates in a decentralized way. The recent progress on developing different strategies for NH3 production, including 1) classic NH3 synthesis pathways over nanomaterials; 2) the Mars-van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism over metal nitrides (MNx ); 3) reducing the nitrate into NH3 over Cu-based nanomaterial; and 4) metal-N2 battery release of NH3 from Lix M. Moreover, the most recent advances in engineering strategies for developing highly active materials and the design of the reaction systems for NH3 synthesis are covered.
Related Concept Videos
Metabolism of Chemolithotrophs
Inorganic Nitrogen Assimilation
Free Energy Changes for Nonstandard States
where R is the gas constant (8.314 J/K·mol), T is the absolute temperature in kelvin, and Q is the reaction quotient. This equation may be used to predict the spontaneity of a process under any given set of conditions.
Reaction Quotient...
Preparation of Amines: Alkylation of Ammonia and Amines
Each alkylation step makes the nitrogen center more nucleophilic, which triggers successive alkylations until a quaternary ammonium salt is formed. Considering...
Preparation of 1° Amines: Gabriel Synthesis
Strong bases like NaOH or KOH deprotonate the phthalimide to form the corresponding anion, which acts as a nucleophile. Further, the anion attacks an...
Titration of a Weak Base with a Strong Acid
Using the ICE table and substituting the Kb value, we calculate the initial pH of 50 mL of 0.1 M ammonia to be 11.11. Addition of 25 mL of 0.1 M hydrochloric acid to this solution of ammonia results in a buffer with an equal concentration of ammonia and ammonium ions. The pH of this buffer can be calculated by substituting these...

