At the same time, in electrocatalytic reactions carried out in aqueous solutions, both nitric acid and water may be reduced. Water electrolysis produces hydrogen, which is also a competitive byproduct of nitric acid to hydroxylamine.

In order to inhibit these competitive by-products and highly selective preparation of hydroxylamine, researchers developed a highly selective hydroxylamine catalyst that can inhibit both ammonia and hydrogen production under the guidance of theoretical calculations,

namely bismuth-based catalyst. At room temperature and pressure, the yield of hydroxylamine electrocatalyzed by bismuth-based catalyst was 200 grams per square meter per hour, and the selectivity of hydroxylamine in all nitrides was as high as 95%.

"In actual production, product separation costs account for a high proportion of the total cost of production. If you only get low concentrations of hydroxylamine, such as milligrams per liter or even micrograms per liter,

then the production of hydroxylamine will also require 'sky-high' separation costs." Zeng Jie said that in order to reduce the cost of product separation, it is necessary to further increase the accumulated concentration of hydroxylamine in solution.

Therefore, the researchers carried out continuous electrolysis of the nitric acid solution for 5 hours, and finally got the content of up to 2.5 grams per liter of hydroxylamine solution.

This verified that extending the electrolysis time can increase the accumulated concentration of hydroxylamine, and the accumulated hydroxylamine will not be reduced again to produce ammonia.

Zeng Jie said that this high-concentration hydroxylamine solution can be obtained by simple impurity removal and evaporation crystallization of solid high-purity hydroxylamine sulfate.

Nitrogen fixation is the process of converting chemically inert nitrogen in the air into ammonia or other nitrogen-containing compounds. Nitrogen, which is up to 78% in the atmosphere, is an inexhaustible source of nitrogen. However, nitrogen molecules are chemically inert and very stable.

In the traditional nitrogen fixation process, the chemical conversion of nitrogen usually requires very harsh reaction conditions, which is also the reason why modern industry needs high temperature and high pressure to synthesis ammonia from nitrogen.

Zeng Jie introduced that the plasma parallel arc discharge device developed by them can break the inert chemical bonds in nitrogen molecules under mild conditions through coupling electrocatalysis, and achieve efficient nitrogen fixation and directional catalytic conversion under normal temperature and pressure conditions.

Wu Li Zhu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher of the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that: "This work successfully synthesized high value-added hydroxylamine by plasma discharge coupled electrocatalysis process using air and water as raw materials under mild conditions,

providing a new paradigm for the development of green artificial nitrogen fixation process based on electric drive, and is an important direction for sustainable resource utilization of nitrogen species."

"Next, in order to further improve the economic benefits of hydroxylamine synthesis, we will further reduce the energy consumption of nitric acid production and improve the energy utilization efficiency of electrosynthesis of hydroxylamine by upgrading the plasma discharge device and optimizing the high-efficiency electrocatalyst," said Zeng Jie.

"Storing good water" and "breeding good seedlings" for scientific and technological talent echelons

Young people are the source of national strategic talent strength. In the construction of talent team, the combination of basic research and the training of young scientific and technological talents is the key to promote original innovation and strengthen basic research.

The government Work Report for 2024 proposes to accelerate the construction of national strategic talent force, strive to train more first-class scientific and technological leaders and innovation teams,

improve the mechanism for discovering and training top-notch innovative talents, build a platform for training basic research talents, build a team of excellent engineers and highly skilled talents,

and increase support for young scientific and technological talents. These points point out the direction for gathering more outstanding young talents to devote themselves to basic research.

In recent years, China has built an increasingly perfect policy system to support the growth and success of young scientific and technological talents in terms of supporting young scientific and technological talents as a leader,

a protagonist, increasing opportunities, reducing assessment, preserving time, and strengthening body and mind. Young scientific and technological talents are playing an increasingly important role in major national scientific and technological tasks.

In the face of the overall goal of building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by the middle of this century,

making good use of young scientific and technological talents is of great significance to accelerating the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and building a strong scientific and technological country and a strong human resources country.