Ammonia on demand: Catalytic N2 reduction on photo-charged tailored TiO2 aerogels

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Roland Marschall; Professorin Dr. Barbara Milow; Professor Dr. Dirk Ziegenbalg
• Subject Area: Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501591928

In the present project, a concept for a sustainable and inexpensive process to generate ammonia on-demand is systematically investigated. This project will present a strategy to charge and store electrons upon light irradiation in a nanostructured semiconductor (TiO2 aerogels), which can be then discharged in the dark with N2 to form ammonia catalytically. This enables the production of ammonia on demand at any time. Moreover, a reactor concept will be developed to perform and investigate the on-demand ammonia synthesis in a decentralized way. This reactor allows for a separation of light-harvesting and the actual N2 reduction, enabling an independent investigation of the reaction conditions for each reaction step. Furthermore, the possibility of intermediate storage of a photocharged aerogel opens up degrees of freedom for the design of the N2 reduction reactor, which can beneficially be utilized for the design of efficient chemical plants that produce fertilizers on-site and on-demand.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2370: Interlinking catalysts, mechanisms and reactor concepts for the conversion of dinitrogen by electrocatalytic, photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic methods (“Nitroconversion”)