The Nitrogen-Nitride Anode.

Technical Report · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1160294· OSTI ID:1160294

Delnick, Frank M.

Nitrogen gas N 2 can be reduced to nitride N -3 in molten LiCl-KCl eutectic salt electrolyte. However, the direct oxidation of N -3 back to N 2 is kinetically slow and only occurs at high overvoltage. The overvoltage for N -3 oxidation can be eliminated by coordinating the N -3 with BN to form the dinitridoborate (BN 2 -3 ) anion which forms a 1-D conjugated linear inorganic polymer with -Li-N-B-N- repeating units. This polymer precipitates out of solution as Li 3 BN 2 which becomes a metallic conductor upon delithiation. Li 3 BN 2 is oxidized to Li + + N 2 + BN at about the N 2 /N -3 redox potential with very little overvoltage. In this report we evaluate the N 2 /N -3 redox couple as a battery anode for energy storage.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1160294
• Report Number(s): SAND2014-18582; 540388
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English