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Human-made lightning harnessed to produce clean ammonia from air
We currently use a lot of ammonia to produce fertilizer, refrigerants, and other chemicals, and unfortunately rely heavily on an energy-intensive process developed in the 19th century – the Haber-Bosch process – to make it in large quantities.
This new method doesn't require a lot of energy, nor does it need any fossil fuels or expensive raw material, and it has a significantly lower environmental impact – the latter being hugely important when you consider the scales at which ammonia is produced and used worldwide. The catalyst has special active sites called "oxygen vacancies" – these are like tiny gaps or imperfections on its surface that make it very reactive and provide spots for the NOx molecules to attach. The catalyst significantly lowers the energy required for these key steps where hydrogen is added, making the conversion to ammonia much easier and more efficient than using just copper.
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