Understanding Continuous Lithium-Mediated Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction
Name
Joule 2019 Understanding Nitrogen Reduction Full text.pdf
Description
Main Article with SI, preprint version
Size
2.73 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5f028300f5af22b7499a7b56e089d2fc
Author(s)
Manthiram, Karthish
Lazouski, Nikifar
Schiffer, Zachary J.
Williams, Kindle
Manthiram, Karthish
Date Issued
April 2019
Journal
Joule
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Lazouski, Nikifar et al. "Understanding Continuous Lithium-Mediated Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction." Joule, 3, 1, (April 2019): 916-916 © 2019 Elsevier Inc.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Ammonia is a large-scale commodity chemical that is crucial for producing nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Electrochemical methods have been proposed as renewable and distributed alternatives to the incumbent Haber-Bosch process, which utilizes fossils for ammonia production. Herein, we report a mechanistic study of lithium-mediated electrochemical nitrogen reduction to ammonia in a non-aqueous system. The rate laws of the main reactions in the system were determined.At high current densities, nitrogen transport limitations begin to affect the nitrogen reduction process.Based on these observations, we developed a coupled kinetic-transport model of the process, which we used to optimize operating conditions for ammonia production.The highest Faradaic efficiency observed was 18.5 ± 2.9%, while the highest production rate obtained was (7.9±1.6)×10-9molcm-2 s-1.Our understanding of the reaction network and the influence of transport provides foundational knowledge for future improvements in continuous lithium-mediated ammonia synthesis.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.02.003
