Plasma driven ammonia decomposition on a Fe-catalyst: eliminating surface nitrogen poisoning

Abstract

Strongly adsorbed N atoms inhibit the ammonia decomposition reaction rate. Plasma-driven catalysis can solve this problem and increase the ammonia conversion from 7.8% to 99.9%. (15)NH(3) isotope tracing and optical emission spectroscopy show that gas-phase active species (NH(3)*, NH˙) in the plasma zone facilitate the desorption step by an Eley-Rideal (E-R) interaction.