Carbon dioxide mixed air promoting plasma-driven nitrogen oxidation conversion

Abstract

Utilization of plasma-driven direct nitrogen oxidation for the production of nitrates presents a promising strategy for realizing artificial nitrogen fixation while minimizing carbon emissions. However, the conventional plasma-driven synthesis method employing air as the feed gas exhibits unsatisfactory nitrogen conversion efficiency due to insufficient oxygen. In this study, we introduced carbon dioxide as an additional source of oxygen and mixed it with air, utilizing electrochemically synthesized copper nanoparticles as a catalyst, which significantly improved the efficiency of plasma-driven nitrogen oxidation. The introduction of carbon dioxide not only provides sufficient O* for the nitrogen oxidation process, but also facilitates the high-value conversion of carbon dioxide with 99.99% selectivity in the synthesis of carbon monoxide. Additionally, we also designed a cyclic reaction device to further enhance the nitrogen oxidation efficiency. As a result, this plasma-driven cycle reaction system achieved a maximum nitrogen conversion rate of up to 11.4%.