Hefei, April 19 (Xinhua) -- A research team led by Professor Zeng Jie and Professor Geng Zhigang from the University of Science and Technology of China has designed a new and sustainable method using only air and water as raw materials, and successfully synthesized hydroxylamine.
On April 19th, the achievement was published in the internationally authoritative journal Nature Sustainability.
Hydroxyamine is an important chemical intermediate widely used in fine chemical fields such as pharmaceuticals, textiles, and electronics.
Zeng Jie introduced that industrial production of hydroxylamine usually uses ammonia as raw material and hydrogen or sulfur dioxide as reducing agent. The production process not only consumes a large amount of energy and fossil resources, but also emits a large amount of carbon dioxide, causing environmental pollution.
Inspired by the natural phenomenon of "thunderstorms hitting crops", researchers have successfully converted air into nitrogen oxides under normal temperature and pressure conditions using plasma discharge technology.
Plasma discharge can produce nitrogen oxides such as nitrogen dioxide in the air, "said Zeng Jie. With nitrogen dioxide, nitric acid can be further prepared.
To improve the preparation efficiency of nitric acid, researchers have developed and designed a plasma parallel arc discharge device and a multi-stage gas circulation absorption tower device, which can continuously produce nitric acid solutions with a concentration of up to 7.5 grams per liter using only air and water as raw materials.
In actual production, the cost of product separation accounts for a high proportion of the total production cost. If only low concentrations of hydroxylamine are obtained, then the production of hydroxylamine will require a 'sky high' separation cost. Zeng Jie said that in order to reduce the cost of product separation, it is necessary to further increase the cumulative concentration of hydroxylamine in the solution.
So, the researchers conducted continuous electrolysis on the nitric acid solution for 5 hours, and finally obtained a hydroxylamine solution with a content of up to 2.5 grams per liter, and verified that extending the electrolysis time can increase its cumulative concentration.
Xi Zhenfeng, an academician of the CAS Member and a professor of Peking University, said: "This work transforms the air and water in the environment into hydroxylamine with high added value, providing a new potential nitrogen source transformation path for the chemical industry."
Wu Lizhu, an academician of the CAS Member and a researcher of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that this work provides a new example for the development of green artificial nitrogen fixation process based on electric power, and is an important direction for the sustainable resource utilization of nitrogen species.
Zeng Jie stated that in the future, efforts will be made to improve the energy utilization efficiency of electro synthesis of hydroxylamine by upgrading the plasma discharge device and optimizing the high-efficiency electrocatalyst, thereby further enhancing its economic benefits.
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Article source: China News Service