The future of green ammonia as long-term energy storage relies on the replacement of the conventional CO₂ intensive methane-fed Haber–Bosch process by distributed and agile ones aligned to the geographically isolated and intermittent renewable energy.

The wide-spread implementation of the so-called hydrogen economy is currently partially limited by an economically feasible way of storing hydrogen. In this context, ammonia has been commonly presented as a viable option for chemical storage due its high hydrogen content (17.6 wt%). However, its use as an energy carrier requires the development of catalytic systems capable of releasing hydrogen at adequate rates and conditions. At the moment, the most active catalytic systems for the decomposition of ammonia are based on ruthenium, however its cost and scarcity inhibit the wide scale use of these catalysts. This issue has triggered research on the development of alternative catalysts based on more sustainable systems using more readily available, non-noble metals mainly iron, cobalt and nickel as well as a series of transition metal carbides and nitrides and bimetallic systems, which are reviewed herein. There have been some promising cobaltand nickel-based catalysts reported for the decomposition of ammonia but metal dispersion needs to be increased in order to become more attractive candidates. Conversely, there seems to be less scope for improvement of iron-based catalysts and metal carbides and nitrides. The area with the most potential for improvement is with bimetallic catalysts, particularly those consisting of cobalt and molybdenum.

No abstract

No abstract

Ceria is a technologically important material with applications in catalysis, emissions control and solid-oxide fuel cells. Nanostructured ceria becomes profoundly more active due to its enhanced surface area to volume ratio, reactive surface oxygen vacancy concentration and superior oxygen storage capacity. Here we report the synthesis of nanostructured ceria using the green Deep Eutectic Solvent reline, which allows morphology and porosity control in one of the less energy-intensive routes reported to date. Using wide Q-range liquid-phase neutron diffraction, we elucidate the mechanism of reaction at a molecular scale at considerably milder conditions than the conventional hydrothermal synthetic routes. The reline solvent plays the role of a latent supramolecular catalyst where the increase in reaction rate from solvent-driven pre-organization of the reactants is most significant. This fundamental understanding of deep eutectic-solvothermal methodology will enable future developments in low-temperature synthesis of nanostructured ceria, facilitating its large-scale manufacturing using green, economic, non-toxic solvents.