Emerging trends in research and development on earth abundant materials for ammonia degradation coupled with H2 generation

Ammonia, as an essential and economical fuel, is a key intermediate for the production of innumerable nitrogen-based compounds. Such compounds found vast applications in the agricultural world, biological world (amino acids, proteins, and DNA) and various other chemical transformations. However, unlike other compounds, the decomposition of ammonia is widely recognized as an important step towards the safe and sustainable environment. Ammonia has been popularly recommended as a viable candidate for chemical storage because of its high hydrogen content. Although ruthenium (Ru) is considered as an excellent catalyst for ammonia oxidation, however, its high cost and low abundance demands the utilization of cheaper, robust and earth abundant catalyst. The present review article underlines the various ammonia decomposition ways with emphasising on the use of non-noble metals, such as iron, nickel, cobalt, molybdenum and several other carbides as well as nitride species. In this review, we have highlighted various advances of the ammonia decomposition catalysts. The major challenges that persist in designing such catalyst and the future developments in the production of efficient material for ammonia decomposition are also discussed.