Facile dissociation of molecular nitrogen using lanthanide surfaces: towards ambient temperature ammonia synthesis

04 February 2020, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

A combined experimental and computational study is reported on a hitherto unrecognised single lanthanide catalyst for the breaking of molecular nitrogen and formation of ammonia at ambient temperature and low pressure.
We combine in situ electrical conductance and electron diffraction measurements to track the conversion from the lanthanide metals to the insulating lanthanide nitrides.
The efficiency of the conversion is then interpreted using DFT+U calculations, suggesting a molecular nitrogen dissociation pathway separate from that well-established for transition metals.
Finally, we show that exposure of the lanthanide surfaces to both molecular nitrogen and hydrogen results in the formation of ammonia.

Keywords

Nitrogen dissociation
catalysts
ammonia synthesis
lanthanide
Density Functional Calculations
Thin Film

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