Congratulations to Zhuyu on her paper officially published by "Plasma Processes and Polymers" with the title "Investigation of NH4NO3 formation by air plasma and wasted ammonia".
Nitrogen fertilizer is a necessary nutrient for crop growth. Plasma nitrogen fixation is a potential technology for producing nitrogen fertilizer in recent years, but it still needs further breakthrough in nitrogen fixation energy consumption. As the main way of nitrogen loss, ammonia volatilized from agriculture caused serious air pollution. This paper innovatively proposes the idea of using air plasma to capture volatile ammonia to produce nitrogen fertilizer ——NH4NO3 with high nitrogen content. Three modes (indirect, mixed and direct) of air plasma acting on DC power supply are studied. The reaction mechanism is analyzed by the results of detected electrical signals, FTIR spectra and liquid phase products. According to the results, nitrogen fertilizer NH4NO3 can be stably formed in the mode of indirect combination of plasma and ammonia, and the chamber temperature will increase when the plasma continues to act, which makes NH4NO3 unstable due to thermal decomposition. Direct effect of plasma on ammonia not only decomposes ammonia, but also hinders the formation of NOx, further inhibiting the production of NH4NO3. The proposed method can not only reduce the energy consumption of plasma nitrogen fixation from a new angle, but also effectively reduce the air pollution caused by agricultural ammonia emissions.
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppap.202000223
