Organic bases catalyze the synthesis of urea from ammonium salts derived from recovered environmental ammonia

Yuichi Manaka; Yuki Nagatsuka; Ken Motokura

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-59795-6

Organic bases catalyze the synthesis of urea from ammonium salts derived from recovered environmental ammonia

Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 18;10(1):2834. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59795-6.

Authors

Yuichi Manaka^{1

2}, Yuki Nagatsuka³, Ken Motokura³

Affiliations

¹ School of Material and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8502, Japan. manaka.y.aa@m.titech.ac.jp.
² Renewable Energy Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 2-2-9 Machiikedai, Koriyama, Fukushima, 963-0298, Japan. manaka.y.aa@m.titech.ac.jp.
³ School of Material and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8502, Japan.

Abstract

Ammonia from sewage and livestock manure is a major environmental pollutant. To consume environmental ammonia, we investigated the organic base-catalyzed synthesis of urea. 1,8-Diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) catalyzes the conversion of ammonium carbamate to urea in 35% yield at 100 °C. Moreover, DBU also converts other ammonium salts into urea. A mechanism that involves nucleophilic attack of ammonia following ion exchange is proposed.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't