Electrochemical-thermochemical-plasma cascade fixation of atmospheric components for the synthesis of α -amino acids with record production rate

Abstract

The fundamental elements that constitute amino acids (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen) can all be obtained from the air. This raises a compelling question: ‘Could suitable catalytic pathways be developed to directly activate and couple these atmospheric elements into amino acids?’ However, due to the inherent inertness of air and the difficulty of coordinating multiple bond-cleavage and bond-formation steps, direct amino acid synthesis from air has not yet been achieved. In this work, we report an electrochemical-thermochemical-plasma cascade route for synthesizing glycine directly from air. This strategy relies on an electrolyzer with a solid-state electrolyte, a plasma device with a high working area, and a multifunctional SnO2 catalyst. In situ characterization and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the designed multifunctional SnO2 catalyst facilitated glycine synthesis by enriching key intermediates (*OCHO, *NH2OH, and *CHOCOOH), achieving 90.8% selectivity and a record production rate of 155 mmol g−1 h−1. This approach provides a practical strategy for synthesizing high-value compounds directly from atmospheric components.