Thermodynamic properties of ammonia production from hydrogenation of alkali and alkaline earth metal amides.

Thermodynamic properties of alkali and alkaline earth metal amides are critical for their performances in hydrogen storage as well as catalytic ammonia synthesis. In this work, the equilibrium ammonia concentrations of LiNH2, KNH2 and Ba(NH2)2 under 10 bar of hydrogen pressure and different temperatures were measured by using a high-pressure gas-solid reaction system equipped with a conductivity meter. Hydrogenation of KNH2 gives the highest equilibrium ammonia concentration, followed by Ba(NH2)2 and LiNH2. Based on these data, the entropy and enthalpy changes of the reaction of ANH2 + H2 → AH + NH3 (A = Li, K and Ba) were obtained from the van't Hoff equation. These thermodynamic parameters provide important information on the understanding of metal amides in catalytic ammonia synthesis reaction.