Nitrous oxide production via ammonia oxidation

Selective oxidation of hydrocarbons provides an opportunity for the direct production of vital building blocks in the chemical industry. Apart from O₂, N₂O has also been employed as an alternative oxidant to improve the selectivity to desired product due to its ability to offer a monatomic oxygen species. The current process of N₂O production, however, is based on NH₄NO₃ decomposition and operated on a limited scale. Alternatively, the oxidation of green NH₃ into N₂O is a promising pathway for the affordable and sustainable N₂O production. At aCe group, my research aims to develop highly selective and stable catalysts for NH₃ oxidation to N₂O, with a special focus on the understanding of fundamentals that influence catalyst activity and selectivity. Extensive catalytic testing, advanced ex situ and in situ characterizations, rigorous kinetic analysis, as well as theoretical calculations will be combined to derive structure-function relationships. Ultimately, the obtained knowledge shall provide fundamental insights to guide catalyst design.