2023 Departmental Poster Competition

Ammonia plays a vital role in the sustainability of human development as an artificial fertilizer and a future energy carrier. The current more efficient way to synthesize ammonia is CO2 emitting the Haber-Bosch (H-B) process, which is dependent upon the use of fossil fuels. Each year, around 150 million tons of NH3 is produced globally using the H−B process, which consumes 3−5% of the annual natural gas production worldwide, or approximately 1−2% of the global annual energy supply. Achieving a carbon-neutral sustainable process for ammonia production is necessary to reduce CO2, which results in global climate change. It is highly desirable to develop a scalable efficient process for NH3 synthesis that can use electricity from renewable energy sources. Electrochemical nitrogen fixation reaction under mild conditions is a promising alternative to the current H-B process. We have continued nitrogen fixation research using different electrocatalysts and feedstock gases. Palladium (Pd) is used as a cathode, and platinum (Pt) as an anode in a one-pot cell. The Pd nanoparticles in LiOH solution appear to promise a good Faradaic Efficiency (FE). Other intermetallic nanoparticles could be made and screened for electrocatalytic activity. In addition, we have used new analytical techniques to quantitatively measure the production of ammonia, and other nitrogen species of interest.