Electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction in ambient condition has received enormous attention for sustainable ammonia production. Apart from catalyst development, this promising route is confronted with considerable technical and scientific challenges, e.g., the ubiquity of ammonia contaminations, and the reliability of analysis methods for products. Herein, using indophenol blue method as a paradigm, its accuracy and reproducibility challenged by several interference factors are firstly scrutinized. The presence and levels of various contamination sources are then deliberately identified. Also, the specific experimental operations with the regulation of gas flow, stirring and temperature are systematically practised. Based on the experimental explorations together with recent advances in the field, we propose a flow chart that provides some critical recommendations to conduct rigorous and consistent operations in electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction. This may help the beginners avoid common pitfalls and urge the community to pay more attention to other significant aspects (e.g., catalyst design and reaction kinetics).

在环境条件下电催化氮的减少已引起可持续氨生产的极大关注。除了催化剂的开发，这一有前途的途径还面临着相当大的技术和科学挑战，例如氨污染的普遍性以及产品分析方法的可靠性。在本文中，以吲哚酚蓝法为例，首先考察了其准确性和可重复性，这些均受到几种干扰因素的挑战。然后仔细确定各种污染源的存在和水平。而且，系统地进行了对气流，搅拌和温度的调节的具体实验操作。根据实验探索以及该领域的最新进展，我们提出了一个流程图，该流程图提供了一些关键建议，以在电催化氮还原中进行严格而一致的操作。这可以帮助初学者避免常见的陷阱，并敦促社区更加关注其他重要方面（例如，催化剂设计和反应动力学）。