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Science 2 October 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5386, p. 9
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5386.9f
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This Week in Science

An early triumph of industrial chemistry was the Haber synthesis of ammonia; iron catalysts allow the reaction to proceed at moderate temperatures (430° to 480° Celsius), but high pressures (150 to 300 atmospheres) that favor product formation are needed. Marnellos and Stoukides (p. 98) have synthesized ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen at ambient pressures and somewhat higher temperatures (570° Celsius) in an electrochemical cell. Hydrogen is dissociated at a palladium anode and delivered through a proton-conducting ceramic tube (a strontia- ceria-ytterbia perovskite) to react with nitrogen at a palladium cathode. In this system, electrical work rather than pressure drives the reaction, which converts almost 80% of the protons delivered into ammonia.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)