Boosting ammonia with a little oxygen Ammonia synthesis from nitrogen for fertilizer production is highly energy intensive. Chemists are therefore exploring electrochemical approaches that could draw power from renewable sources while generating less waste. One promising cycle involves the reduction of lithium ions at an electrode, with the resultant metal in turn reducing nitrogen and regenerating the ions. Li et al . report the counterintuitive result that small quantities of oxygen could enhance the efficiency of this process, which they attribute to diffusional effects that limit excessive lithium reduction. —JSY

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The need for efficient ammonia synthesis is as urgent as ever. Over the past two decades, many attempts to find new catalysts for ammonia synthesis at mild conditions have been reported and, in particular, many new promoters of the catalytic rate have been introduced beyond the traditional K and Cs oxides. Herein, we provide an overview of recent experimental results for non-traditional promoters and develop a comprehensive model to explain how they work. The model has two components. First, we establish what is the most likely structure of the active sites in the presence of the different promoters. We then show that there are two effects dictating the catalytic activity. One is an electrostatic interaction between the adsorbed promoter and the N-N dissociation transition state. In addition, we identify a new promoter effect for magnetic catalysts giving rise to an anomalously large lowering of the activation energy opening the possibility of finding new ammonia synthesis catalysts.

The promoting effect of manganese on the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst for the hydrogenation of carbon oxides, in the presence of light hydrocarbons, was studied. Ni/Al2O3 displayed a high activity for the complete conversion of CO and CO2 to methane and C2+ hydrocarbons. Moreover, over a discrete and relatively narrow temperature range, the net concentration of light C2+ hydrocarbons was elevated, with the exit stream containing a higher concentration of C2+ species than was present in the feed stream and the product stream being virtually free of carbon oxides. It is found that the addition of manganese can enhance the selectivity toward the production of light hydrocarbons. A series of Ni–Mn/Al2O3 catalysts, prepared with different Ni/Mn ratios, were studied. Various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, CO and H2 chemisorption, in situ nitric oxide adsorption Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (NO-FTIR), and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) were performed to gain an insight into how the addition of Mn to the primary catalyst enhances the yield of light hydrocarbons. The origin of Mn promotion was demonstrated through density functional theory (DFT) calculations, which revealed the favorable Mn substitution at the Ni(211) step edge sites under reducing conditions. The affinity of these Mn species toward oxidation stabilizes the CO dissociation product and thus provides a thermodynamic driving force that promotes C–O bond cleavage compared to the Mn-unmodified catalyst surface.

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