Effective Ammonia Production from Nitrogen and Water under Ambient Conditions through Proton-Coupled In Situ Radiolytic Electron Transfer
Ammonia (NH<sub>3</sub>) is a vital component for sustaining global food supplies and fuel production, but its industrial production via the Haber-Bosch process remains energetically demanding and carbon-intensive. Here, we report an electron-beam-activated NH<sub>3</sub> synthesis strategy that utilizes only atmospheric N<sub>2</sub> and water as feedstocks under ambient conditions. This approach achieves an industrially relevant rate of 83.6 μmol g<sup>-1</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> with a substantially improved energy efficiency of 0.53 MJ/mol, which surpasses most laboratory-scale technologies and is comparable to that of the Haber-Bosch process. Time-resolved operando spectroscopic experiments, combined with theoretical calculations, reveal that this distinct activation mode enables rapid N<sub>2</sub>→NH<sub>3</sub> conversion through a proton-coupled transfer of an in situ generated energetic hydrated electron. Furthermore, techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment demonstrate that the operational simplicity and exceptional throughput of the present N<sub>2</sub> fixation approach could promote nitrogen circularity in the sustainable chemical industry.
Authors
- Shuao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1526-1102)
- Qing Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7083-9416)
- Hui Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8358-8326)
- Yuxiang Bu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6445-5069)
- Shinichi Yamashita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-4690)
- Jun Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7776-0751)
- Zhiwen Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3576-2534)
- Changjiang Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5474-9653)
- Degao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0499-2978)
- Xiang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3439-2300)
- Pengfei Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3433-2878)
- Ruisi Chang
- Xiaoping Ouyang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2090-7123)
- Junyi Zhao
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Shandong University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Soochow University (CN)
- School of Business and Management (FR)
- Advanced Energy Materials (United States) (US)
- Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology (CN)
- National Institute for Radiological Protection (CN)
- Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology (CN)
- PRG S&Tech (South Korea)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Published
- 2025-10-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c11505
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.78