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Diamond catalyst shows promise in breaching age-old barrier
http://www.news.wisc.edu/21910[font face=Serif][font size=5]Diamond catalyst shows promise in breaching age-old barrier[/font]
June 30, 2013 | by Terry Devitt
[font size=3]…
“The current process for reducing nitrogen to ammonia is done under extreme conditions,” explains Hamers, a professor of chemistry. “There is an enormous barrier you have to overcome to get your final product.”
Breaching that barrier more efficiently and reducing the huge amounts of energy used to convert nitrogen to ammonia — by some estimates, 2 percent of the world’s electrical output — has been a grail for the agricultural chemical industry. Now, that goal may be on the horizon, thanks to a technique devised by Hamers and his colleagues and published today (June 30, 2013) in the journal Nature Methods.
…
Hamers and his team, including Di Zhu, Linghong Zhang and Rose E. Ruther, all of UW-Madison, turned to synthetic industrial diamond — a cheap, gritty, versatile material — as a potential new catalyst for the reduction process. Diamond, the Wisconsin team found, can facilitate the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia under ambient temperatures and pressures.
Like all chemical reactions, the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia involves moving electrons from one molecule to another. Using hydrogen-coated diamond illuminated by deep ultraviolet light, the Wisconsin team was able to induce a ready stream of electrons into water, which served as a reactant liquid that reduced nitrogen to ammonia under temperature and pressure conditions far more efficient than those required by traditional industrial methods.
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(Journal article not yet on-line.)June 30, 2013 | by Terry Devitt
[font size=3]…
“The current process for reducing nitrogen to ammonia is done under extreme conditions,” explains Hamers, a professor of chemistry. “There is an enormous barrier you have to overcome to get your final product.”
Breaching that barrier more efficiently and reducing the huge amounts of energy used to convert nitrogen to ammonia — by some estimates, 2 percent of the world’s electrical output — has been a grail for the agricultural chemical industry. Now, that goal may be on the horizon, thanks to a technique devised by Hamers and his colleagues and published today (June 30, 2013) in the journal Nature Methods.
…
Hamers and his team, including Di Zhu, Linghong Zhang and Rose E. Ruther, all of UW-Madison, turned to synthetic industrial diamond — a cheap, gritty, versatile material — as a potential new catalyst for the reduction process. Diamond, the Wisconsin team found, can facilitate the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia under ambient temperatures and pressures.
Like all chemical reactions, the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia involves moving electrons from one molecule to another. Using hydrogen-coated diamond illuminated by deep ultraviolet light, the Wisconsin team was able to induce a ready stream of electrons into water, which served as a reactant liquid that reduced nitrogen to ammonia under temperature and pressure conditions far more efficient than those required by traditional industrial methods.
…[/font][/font]
1 replies
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I wanta live forever!!!
