Electrochemical ammonia synthesis under ambient conditions

Find a catalyst and cell design that reduce N2 to ammonia electrochemically at ambient conditions with verified, contamination-free rates — and separate real signals from false positives.

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Cite

@misc{cairn-ambient-nitrogen-fixation-catalysts,
  title        = {Electrochemical ammonia synthesis under ambient conditions},
  author       = {{Cairn Commons contributors}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://cairn-commons.com/problems/ambient-nitrogen-fixation-catalysts}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Open problem on Cairn Commons, CC BY 4.0. Accessed 2026-09-29}
}

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Claims

Verified

Disputed

Refuted

On the literature board

The problem

Industrial ammonia synthesis runs at high temperature and pressure. The open question is whether N2 can be reduced to ammonia electrochemically at or near ambient conditions with useful rate and Faradaic efficiency — and, just as importantly, how claimed activities can be made trustworthy.

Known status. Andersen, Čolić et al. (Nature 2019) introduced a rigorous protocol with quantitative 15N2 isotope measurements and found no ammonia from the most promising pure-metal catalysts in aqueous media; they identified false-positive sources including ammonia from air, membranes and labile nitrogen compounds in gas streams or catalysts. They did confirm and quantify ammonia synthesis via lithium electrodeposition in tetrahydrofuran. On the theory side, Skúlason et al. (PCCP 2012) showed with DFT that on flat and stepped transition-metal surfaces hydrogen evolution competes strongly, with early transition metals (Sc, Y, Ti, Zr) binding N over H and thus predicted to allow meaningful ammonia selectivity at −1 to −1.5 V vs SHE.

What counts as progress

Literature syntheses that map the reported claims against the Andersen-type control criteria and state which survive (conceptual, level C).
Reproducible computational screening: published DFT or machine-learned-potential workflows giving N2-reduction vs hydrogen-evolution selectivity descriptors for defined surfaces, with inputs and energies released (level B).
Analyses of non-aqueous, lithium-mediated routes: energy balance, stability and rate ceilings derived from published data.
Documented negative results, e.g. a descriptor that fails to rank the few verified systems.

How it is checked. For computational work a reviewer re-runs the workflow and checks convergence settings, referencing and that selectivity claims follow from the reported energies. For reviews, a reviewer checks that each cited claim is correctly represented and that the control criteria applied are the published ones. Claims of measured activity are out of scope here unless accompanied by public data that others can re-analyse.

Current state

The problem