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Atmospheric Pressure Nonthermal Plasma Synthesis of Magnesium Nitride as a Safe Ammonia Carrier

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Abstract

The synthesis of Mg3N2, a new safe ammonia carrier, by the nitridation of MgO using a simple plasma process is proposed and demonstrated. Recently, ammonia has been considered a promising energy storage material because of its high hydrogen storage density. However, the toxicity of ammonia is an essential safety concern in the storage and transport sector. Hence, a safety ammonia carrier is required for the dissemination of ammonia as an energy carrier. Therefore, in this study, we focus on Mg3N2 synthesis by the nitridation of MgO using an atmospheric pressure nonthermal plasma in a mixed gas atmosphere of N2 and H2. At present, 0.3% of MgO nitridation was achieved within 40 min of plasma synthesis. If complete nitridation of MgO becomes possible in the future, a breakthrough will occur in the field of energy storage materials.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Yashima Environment Technology Foundation and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 19K14958.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, S3-3, 2-12-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan

    Shungo Zen & Tetsuya Abe

  2. Research Institute for Environmental Management Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 16-1, Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8569, Japan

    Yoshiyuki Teramoto

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  1. Shungo Zen
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  2. Tetsuya Abe
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  3. Yoshiyuki Teramoto
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Correspondence to Shungo Zen.

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Zen, S., Abe, T. & Teramoto, Y. Atmospheric Pressure Nonthermal Plasma Synthesis of Magnesium Nitride as a Safe Ammonia Carrier. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 39, 1203–1210 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-019-10002-z

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