H2O2 Mediated Photoreduction of Nitrates to Ammonia by Iron Filings under Ambient Conditions

Abstract

Herein, a simple ambient conditioned sunlight promoted photochemical reduction reaction is demonstrated for the of nitrate (NO₃^–) conversion to ammonia (NH₃) with the maximum conversion yield of ∼16 mM using iron filings (f-Fe) in the presence of H₂O₂. Based on a radical scavenging study of reactive species and the characterization of catalyst f-Fe before and after the reaction, a plausible mechanism has been proposed for the ambient conditioned synthesis of NH₃. The results associated with the NH₃ synthesis have been verified using the ¹⁵N isotopic labeled nitrate (¹⁵NO₃^–), which supports the simpler viability of the reported procedure.