Coupling N2 and CO2 in H2O to synthesize urea under ambient conditions

By Chen Chen, Xiaorong Zhu, Xiaojian Wen, Yangyang Zhou, Ling Zhou, Hao Li, L. Tao, Qiling Li, Shiqian Du, Tingting Liu and 19 more. Nature Chemistry, 2020

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The use of nitrogen fertilizers has been estimated to have supported 27% of the world’s population over the past century. Urea (CO(NH2)2) is conventionally synthesized through two consecutive industrial processes, N2 + H2 → NH3 followed by NH3 + CO2 → urea. Both reactions operate under harsh conditions and consume more than 2% of the world’s energy. Urea synthesis consumes approximately 80% of the NH3 produced globally. Here we directly coupled N2 and CO2 in H2O to produce urea under ambient conditions. The process was carried out using an electrocatalyst consisting of PdCu alloy nanoparticles on TiO2 nanosheets. This coupling reaction occurs through the formation of C–N bonds via the thermodynamically spontaneous reaction between *N=N* and CO. Products were identified and quantified using isotope labelling and the mechanism investigated using isotope-labelled operando synchrotron-radiation Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. A high rate of urea formation of 3.36 mmol g–1 h–1 and corresponding Faradic efficiency of 8.92% were measured at –0.4 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Conventionally, urea is synthesized via two consecutive processes, N2 + H2 → NH3 followed by NH3 + CO2. Now, an electrocatalyst consisting of PdCu alloy nanoparticles on TiO2 nanosheets has been shown to directly couple N2 and CO2 in H2O to produce urea under ambient conditions.

Subfields: Catalysis, Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fdc7467dabf6ffe02f073328cb6647419045b270

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Citations in the corpus

• 2022 roadmap on low temperature electrochemical CO2 reduction (2022, background): “Furthermore, the amount of CO needs to be well controlled, since the excessive formation of CO will occupy excessive adsorption sites and will, to some extent, inhibit the activation of N2 and CO2 [235].”