The research community focused on the development of heterogeneous electrocatalysts for low temperature electrochemical nitrogen reduction to ammonia continues to see an increasing number of publication contributions on electrocatalyst synthesis and performance testing, with few studies conducting quantitative and thorough verification of ammonia production data. With the recent publication of recommended guidelines and procedures for controls and isotopic verification of ammonia synthesis, we need to continue to discuss as a research community what is necessary to support electrocatalyst design and synthesis efforts. Some open questions for continued discussion include: What level of experimental controls and isotopic quantification are necessary, and how should these experiments and results be reported? Are we missing ambient or contaminant influences in our ammonia measurements? What studies published thus far represent the highest quality of work, and should these studies be used to demonstrate electrocatalyst design pathways? How can we promote and proceed with repeating published work to verify electrocatalyst performance? What are the experimental challenges that researchers are facing in being able to repeatedly and accurately measure ammonia produced by heterogeneous electrocatalyst surfaces? In this talk, we will discuss these and other questions facing our NRR research community today.
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