Ammonia (NH3) is a globally important commodity for fertilizer production, but its synthesis by the Haber-Bosch process causes substantial emissions of carbon dioxide. Alternative, zero-carbon emission NH3 synthesis methods being explored include the promising electrochemical lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction reaction, which has nonetheless required sacrificial sources of protons. In this study, a phosphonium salt is introduced as a proton shuttle to help resolve this limitation. The salt also provides additional ionic conductivity, enabling high NH3 production rates of 53 ± 1 nanomoles per second per square centimeter at 69 ± 1% faradaic efficiency in 20-hour experiments under 0.5-bar hydrogen and 19.5-bar nitrogen. Continuous operation for more than 3 days is demonstrated.
The speciation of a family of inexpensive, easily prepared protonic ionic liquids, their physico-chemical properties and their performance as catalysts in the model esterification reaction have been correlated.
The synthesis and characterisation of new hydrogen-bond-rich ionic liquids and studies of their catalytic performance in Diels–Alder reactions are described. An increase in the number of hydroxyl groups present in the ionic liquid structure resulted in higher efficiency.
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