Electrochemical Synthesis of Ammonia in Molten Salt Electrolyte Using Hydrogen and Nitrogen at Ambient Pressure

In this study, the synthesis of ammonia (NH 3 ) at ambient pressure using H 2 and N 2 is electrochemically achieved. The conducting and reaction media with molten salt consist of molten hydroxide as NaOH and KOH whereas the reaction temperature is varied in the range of 200°C to 255°C to investigate the impact of temperature on the ammonia production rate and hence performance. The porous nickel mesh electrodes having an area of 100 cm 2 are used as cathode and anode where the supplied electricity is controlled using potentiostat/galvanostat. The maximum faradaic efficiency for ammonia synthesis is found to be 9.3% at 210°C corresponding to 6.53 × 10 −10 mol/s cm 2 ammonia evolution rate at 2 mA/cm 2 current density with nano-Fe 3 O 4 as the catalyst. Furthermore, the applied voltages and applied currents are varied to find the optimum experimental conditions for molten salt electrolyte based electrochemical ammonia synthesis.