Layered interface transports ions swiftly.

As the primary source for nitrogen fertilizer, ammonia (NH3) is critical for sustaining the global food supply. It is a key industrial chemical and an ideal zero-carbon energy carrier, with annual production exceeding 180 million tonnes worldwide (1). For more than a century, industrial ammonia production has been dominated by the Haber-Bosch process, which combines nitrogen (N2) with hydrogen (H2) under high temperatures (350° to 450°C) and pressures (15 to 20 MPa) and emits substantial amounts of carbon dioxide. A more sustainable route to ammonia synthesis is the lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction reaction, an electrochemical method that uses lithium metal to activate inert nitrogen gas from the atmosphere (1, 2), but this approach suffers from low efficiency and poor long-term stability. On page 724 of this issue, Zhang et al. (3) report a strategy to improve the efficiency of the nitrogen reduction reaction, producing ammonia under conditions relevant to industrial operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]