Chinese Journal of Catalysis

Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2026, Vol. 81: 310-318.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(25)64915-1

• Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Direct electrochemical liquid ammonia splitting for onsite hydrogen generation under room temperature

Miao-Miao Shia,1, Yue-Xuan Hea,1, Ning Zhangb, Di Baob, Da-Ming Zhaob, Hai-Xia Zhongb(), Jun-Min Yana(), Qing Jianga   

  1. a Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, Jilin, China
    b State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, Jilin, China
  • Received:2025-08-07 Accepted:2025-10-11 Online:2026-02-18 Published:2025-12-26
  • Contact: *E-mail: junminyan@jlu.edu.cn (J. Yan),hxzhong@ciac.ac.cn (H. Zhong).
  • About author:1Contributed equally to this work.
  • Supported by:
    National Key Research and Development Program of China(2021YFB4000603);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52273277);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52072362);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52302094)

RichHTML

6

PDF (PC)

11

Abstract:

Ammonia (NH3) is seen to be promising hydrogen carrier, but its decomposition into hydrogen (H2) has been plagued by high operating temperature (400‒700 °C) and long start-up time. Here, we present that directly electrochemical liquid NH3 decomposition (ELADH) method could realize efficient onsite H2 generation at room-temperature, whereas active and stable electrocatalytic system is challenging. Through rationally optimizing the electrolysis system with Ru catalysts, we achieved an active and durable ELADH into H2 under ambient temperature. It was found that Ru nanoparticles (Ru NPs) with (101) facet could effectively promote the favorable N-H dissociation and hydrogen desorption, and thus accelerate the slow reaction kinetics. The as-prepared Ru NPs on nitrogen carbon exhibit lower potential of ‒1.01 V vs. NHE at ‒10 mA cm‒2 and larger current density of ‒910 mA cm‒2 at ‒1.47 V vs. NHE, superior to Ru single atoms and commercial Pt/C. Importantly, this system affords stable H2 evolution under 100 h continuous electrolysis without apparent degradation, far beyond the reported catalysts. This work paves the new way of room-temperature onsite H2 production and presents insightful understanding of the electrochemical liquid ammonia splitting process.

Key words: Liquid ammonia decomposition, Electrocatalysis, Ruthenium-based catalyst, Hydrogen evolution, Stability