Electrochemical synthesis using renewable energy will facilitate decarbonizing the chemical industry and mitigating climate change. Significant scientific challenges, including the low energy efficiency and low selectivity of many electrocatalytic processes, hinder the broad application of the electrochemical approaches. Understanding reaction mechanisms is crucial for overcoming these challenges.
This project seeks to develop and apply new nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods to understand electrocatalytic reaction mechanisms. NMR is a non-invasive, atom-specific, and quantitative spectroscopic method. When performed in operando, NMR methods can capture reaction intermediate and study the dynamics of reactions in gas, liquid and solid phases simultaneously. The system of interest here is the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia – one of the most widely produced commodity chemicals, currently produced by the Haber-Bosch process, consuming 1% of global energy with heavy emission of carbon dioxide.
The electrocatalytic synthesis, making use of renewable energy and resources, represents one of the most promising approaches to decarbonize the ammonia synthesis. Although promising, the electrocatalytic approach faces significant challenges of low selectivity and energy efficiency. Understanding the reaction mechanisms that unpin these performances is crucial for further improvement. To achieve these goals, two major research themes will run in parallel in this project: 1) developing two new operando NMR methods for studying electrocatalysis; 2) applying these new methods to gain molecular-level understanding of the reaction mechanisms of lithium-mediated ammonia synthesis. These new NMR methods are general and can be readily applied for studying a wide range of industrially relevant electrochemical conversion systems such as organic electrosynthesis of speciality chemicals or electrocatalytic recycling of plastics.
