Ammonia is an essential chemical with an annual production of 200 million tonnes, estimated to increase 40% by 2050. More than 80% of ammonia is used as a raw material for fertilizer production, while the remaining is used for various applications such as plastics synthesis, intermediates synthesis for pharma industry, refrigeration, and also expected to be future carbon-neutral fuel due to its greater recompenses of energy density, ease of liquefaction and larger hydrogen content. Conventionally, ammonia is produced using the Haber-Bosch process, which requires high temperature and high costs, releases 450 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, and consumes 3–5% of global natural gas supply annually. To eradicate the carbon emission from the ammonia synthesis, there is an enormous need to produce ammonia using an alternative approach to that of the Haber-Bosch process, through clean, sustainable, and carbon neutral methods for agriculture and other aforementioned emerging applications. In this work, we propose a clean and sustainable electrochemical pathway for the synthesis of an innovative ammonia. The main focus of this research will be the development of novel nanostructured high surface area iron-based electrocatalysts to improve the selectivity and faradaic efficiency of ammonia synthesis from ambient nitrogen and water.
