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One-Step Synthesis of Cesium Decorated Ru Nanoparticles on MgO as Efficient Catalyst for Ammonia Synthesis

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Abstract

Alkali promoted Ru/MgO catalysts have been explored as promising catalyst for ammonia synthesis. However, application of alkali promoted Ru/MgO catalysts is severely restricted by the complex synthetic procedure. Herein, a one-step solid state method was developed for synthesis of cesium decorated Ru/MgO (Cs‒Ru/MgO) materials. The Cs‒Ru/MgO catalysts exhibit over 1 order of magnitude higher activity than that of the undecorated Ru/MgO analogue in ammonia synthesis, even outperforming previous reported Cs promoted Ru/MgO. Moreover, highly stable performance was observed over the Cs–Ru/MgO catalyst in ammonia synthesis. Characterization results show that the Cs species can not only induce formation of highly dispersed Ru nanoparticles (NPs) but also modulate the electronic structure of Ru NPs. Cs species decorated Ru NPs can facilitate dissociation of nitrogen and greatly improve intrinsic activity of Cs–Ru/MgO catalysts. This study offers a new and facile route to fabricate efficient alkali metal promoted Ru-based catalysts for ammonia synthesis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFB4000401), the Natural Science Foundation of China (22179128), the Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program (XLYC2002076), the Dalian High-level Talents Program (2019RD09), the Joint Fund of the Yulin University and the Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy (YLU-DNL Fund 2021010) and the K. C. Wong Education Foundation (GJTD-2018-06). We also thank Dr Ping Chen from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics for fruitful discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China

    Xiaohua Ju, Ji Feng, Jiemin Wang, Jianping Guo & Lin Liu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Ji Feng

  3. Zhang Dayu School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Jiemin Wang

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  1. Xiaohua Ju
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Correspondence to Lin Liu.

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Ju, X., Feng, J., Wang, J. et al. One-Step Synthesis of Cesium Decorated Ru Nanoparticles on MgO as Efficient Catalyst for Ammonia Synthesis. Catal Lett 153, 1615–1624 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-022-04119-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-022-04119-8

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