Absolute density measurements of ammonia produced via plasma-activated catalysis

The generation of ammonia from atomic hydrogen and nitrogen has been demonstrated by means of cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy. The atomic species are produced in a thermal plasma source in which plasma is created from mixtures of hydrogen and nitrogen. It is shown that for large atomic flux conditions, 2% of the hydrogen and nitrogen can be converted to ammonia. The process in which the ammonia molecules are formed from atomic radicals at the fully covered surface is called plasma-activated catalysis.