Recent Advances and Perspective on Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis under Ambient Conditions.

Ammonia is an essential chemical for agriculture and industry. To date, NH 3 is mainly supplied by the traditional Haber-Bosch process, which is operated under high-temperature and high-pressure in a centralized way. To achieve ammonia production in an environmentally benign way, electrochemical NH 3 synthesis under ambient conditions has become the frontier of energy and chemical conversion schemes, as it can be powered by renewable energy and operates in a decentralized way. The recent progress on developing different strategies for NH 3 production, including 1) classic NH 3 synthesis pathways over nanomaterials; 2) the Mars-van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism over metal nitrides (MN x ); 3) reducing the nitrate into NH 3 over Cu-based nanomaterial; and 4) metal-N 2 battery release of NH 3 from Li x M. Moreover, the most recent advances in engineering strategies for developing highly active materials and the design of the reaction systems for NH 3 synthesis are covered.