Regulating Multifunctional Oxygen Vacancies for Plasma‐Driven Air‐to‐Ammonia Conversion

W Wanping Xu (School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) J Jiaqian Wang (State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering) T Tianqi Zhang (School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering) J Jungmi Hong (School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering) Q Qiang Song Z Zhongkang Han (State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials and Center of Electron Microscopy, School of Materials Science and Engineering) P Patrick Cullen (School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering)

Abstract

Abstract Current ammonia (NH₃) synthesis is hindered by challenges including N₂ activation, NH₃ separation and process complexity. Here, we report a plasma‐electrochemical process for the production of gaseous ammonia from air generated NO x , decoupled from processes employing liquid phase intermediaries such as NO₃⁻ and final product (NH 4 + ). Importantly, this process uses air for scalable ammonia production under ambient conditions and directly produces gaseous NH₃ which facilitates efficient product separation. For NO x reduction to NH₃, we propose a universal strategy combining plasma pretreatment and wet chemical calcination to introduce multifunctional oxygen vacancies. The resulting highly defective Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles on Cu achieves a significant ammonia production rate of 628 nmol·s⁻¹·cm⁻ 2 , along with nearly 100% faradaic efficiency.

Article Details

Volume / Issue Vol. 64, Issue 27
Published July 01, 2025
ISSN 1433-7851
Publisher Wiley

Journal Info

Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Wiley

ISSN: 1433-7851 Physical Sciences

Authors (7)

W

Wanping Xu

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

J

Jiaqian Wang

State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering

T

Tianqi Zhang

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

J

Jungmi Hong

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Q

Qiang Song

Z

Zhongkang Han

State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials and Center of Electron Microscopy, School of Materials Science and Engineering

P

Patrick Cullen

School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering