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 V_cell and FE_NH3 of 94.6% at −1.6 V_cell, along with enhanced durability. Notably, this performance represents one of the highest FE_NH3 achievements for electrochemical gas-phase NO reduction at room temperature.