Enhancing Ammonia Synthesis over Ru-Based Catalysts via Engineering of Rare-Earth Oxide Supports

Rare-earth oxide-supported Ru metal catalysts are promising for NH 3 synthesis owing to a strong metal–support interaction. Modifying rare-earth oxides with a second metal offers an effective approach to tuning support properties, while systematic support engineering to enhance NH 3 synthesis performance remains scarce. In this work, a series of Ru/Ce 1–a La a O x catalysts with varying Ce-to-La molar ratios were synthesized and evaluated for NH 3 synthesis. The NH 3 synthesis rate of Ru/Ce 1–a La a O x exhibits a volcano relationship with an increase in the La content. The optimal Ru/Ce 0.7 La 0.3 O x catalyst exhibits a remarkable NH 3 synthesis rate of 34.13 mmol NH3 g cat –1 h –1 with over 500 h long-term stability at 400 °C and 1 MPa, which is 1.65-fold that of Ru/CeO 2 . Various characterizations reveal that La doping is beneficial to increase the charge density of Ru sites via facilitation of oxygen vacancy formation, which consequently ensures fast N 2 cleavage. In addition, the La doping can avoid hydrogen poisoning more effectively through enhanced hydrogen spillover, which together with promoted N 2 activation are responsible for high-performance NH 3 synthesis over Ru/Ce 0.7 La 0.3 O x catalyst under mild conditions.