Synergistic plasma-assisted electrochemical reduction of nitrogen to ammonia.

A nitrogen plasma was incorporated into the cathode side of an electrolyzer to provide energetically activated N2 species to the electrocatalyst surface. At an applied bias of ∼3.5 V across the electrolyzer, plasma-assisted operation was observed to produce 47% more ammonia than the combination of plasma-without-bias and bias-without-plasma conditions.