Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis from Dilute Gaseous Nitric Oxide Reduction at Ambient Conditions

Converting gaseous nitric oxide (NO) to ammonia (NH3) is important because of its environmental and industrial implications. The electrochemical transformation of nitrogen (N2) to NH3 faces several challenges, including a slow reaction rate and low Faradaic efficiency (FE). This study presents an innovative approach by integrating NO elimination and NH3 production by electrochemical gaseous NO reduction reaction (NORR) under ambient conditions. Co and Mo-based catalysts were investigated for the continuous reduction of diluted NO gas (1%) to NH3 within a proton exchange membrane (PEM) cell under ambient conditions. In electrochemical NORR tests conducted without a catholyte, CoMo-NC demonstrated notable NORR performance, achieving an NH3 yield rate of 23.2 × 10−10 mol s−1 cm−2 at −2.2 Vcell and FENH3 of 94.6% at −1.6 Vcell, along with enhanced durability. Notably, this performance represents one of the highest FENH3 achievements for electrochemical gas-phase NO reduction at room temperature.