A Hybrid Plasma-Electro-Membrane Triple Intensified System over PdNPs/Fe-N-C for Ammonium Fertilizer Synthesis

Abstract

Upgrading nitrogen to ammonium fertilizer under environmental conditions presents a promising prospect for the application of distributed renewable energy. Herein, a hybrid plasma-electro-membrane triple intensified system is developed to achieve ammonium fertilizer synthesis. Initially, the air undergoes a transformation into NO2− by plasma. Then, the PdNPs/Fe-N-C, which is composed of palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) and iron single atoms (Fe-N-C), was employed as the catalyst for the NO2− electroreduction reaction (NO2−RR), exhibiting a remarkable NH3 yield rate of 92.7 mg h−1 mgcat−1, corresponding to a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of nearly 100%. Experimental and theoretical analysis showed that Fe-N-C is the active site of NO2− reduction, and the PdNPs can dissociate water to produce adsorbed hydrogen for nitrogen intermediate reduction. The electron transfer between PdNPs and the Fe-N-C makes the spin configuration of Fe change from low to medium spin state, therefore decreasing the energy barrier of the *NO hydrogenation process during NO2−RR. Finally, the NH3-containing electrolyte is passed through a membrane separation reactor optimized for mass transfer to achieve NH3 recovery and ammonium fertilizer synthesis. The PdNPs/Fe-N-C driven hybrid system achieves a high (NH4)2SO4 yield of 685.8 mg h−1, which can also be applied to the synthesis of other ammonium fertilizers.

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Mar 2025
Accepted
25 Jul 2025
First published
06 Aug 2025

Energy Environ. Sci., 2025, Accepted Manuscript

A Hybrid Plasma-Electro-Membrane Triple Intensified System over PdNPs/Fe-N-C for Ammonium Fertilizer Synthesis

C. Wang, C. Yu, B. Qian, Y. Ren, R. Ma, Y. Chu and J. Qiu, Energy Environ. Sci., 2025, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D5EE01513H

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