Photoelectrochemical Ammonia Production

The activation and reduction of dinitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) presents one of the essential conversions in sustainable energy production as ammonia holds various industrial applications from fertilizers to food production to hydrogen energy storage. Most of the ammonia supply is fulfilled by the traditional energy-intensive Haber-Bosch (HB) process that has limitations of high operational temperature (400°C–500°C) and pressure (~200 bar) along with the emission of greenhouse gas (CO2). To overcome these limitations and for a sustainable energy future, we need to explore alternative pathways for ammonia synthesis that are eco-friendly and carry out production under ambient conditions. Photoelectrochemical ammonia production offers a renewable energy production route that combines the merits of both light energy (photons) and charge transfer (electrical bias) with moderate energy consumption. This chapter summarizes and analyzes the fundamental aspect of nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), potential catalysts, and instrumentation setup to carry out N2 reduction followed by ammonia quantification techniques. The recent advances in designing effective catalytic systems with computational efforts for better fundamental understanding are also discussed.