Convergence Research Seminar Series: Lea Winter, PhD (Yale University)

Abstract: Nitrogen fixation in fertilizers forms the basis of modern agriculture and mediates global food insecurity. However, conventional thermally-activated nitrogen conversion processes consume substantial amounts of fossil fuels as materials and energy inputs, leading to an unsustainable energy and carbon footprint. Furthermore, inefficiencies in reactive nitrogen management lead to energy losses as well as hazardous environmental pollution. Therefore, electron-driven approaches are needed to establish fossil-free nitrogen interconversions. This talk will focus on electrochemical and plasma-activated nitrogen transformations, which could enable facile coupling to intermittent renewable energy sources to reduce CO2 emissions and reactive nitrogen pollution, facilitate storage and transportation of renewable energy in nitrogen-based fuels, and improve the global distribution of fertilizer to promote food security. 

Non-thermal plasma has been used to synthesize ammonia under mild conditions, but the dearth of fundamental understanding of plasma catalytic reactions handicaps the development of plasma-activated N2 conversion processes. Therefore, an in situ FTIR reactor…