Photosynthesis of NH3 from NO3– using CH4 in Homogenous Rhenium Catalysis

Abstract

We present Re catalysis of one‐pot synthesis of NH3 from NO3– using CH4 as a reductant under UV light irradiation at room temperature and normal pressure. NO3– leads to environmental issues such as water contamination, eutrophication and biodiversity loss. In a natural system and a sewage facility, NO3– can be detoxified to N2 using hydrogen donors by microbial process. However, it is better to convert NO3– to NH3 rather than N2. To develop a desirable process of NO3– to NH3 for a sustainable society, it is required that the reducing agent is derived from a renewable resource/energy. Thus, we turned our attention to CH4, which has high affinity with renewable resource/energy since it can be produced from livestock waste. Therefore, our system reported here is to directly convert NO3– to NH3 using CH4 with light energy.