Highly Dispersed Ruthenium Nanoparticles on Y<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> as Superior Catalyst for Ammonia Decomposition
Ji Feng, Lin Liu, Xiaohua Ju, Jiemin Wang, Xilun Zhang, Teng He, Ping Chen
Abstract
Abstract Design of highly active and stable catalysts for ammonia decomposition to produce CO x ‐free hydrogen is an urgent task for the utilization of NH 3 as H 2 carrier. Herein, Yttrium oxide (Y 2 O 3 ) has been demonstrated to be capable of dispersing and stabilizing Ru nanoparticles as a functional support. Highly dispersed Ru nanoparticles on Y 2 O 3 (Ru/Y 2 O 3 ) was prepared and investigated as catalyst for NH 3 decomposition. Under a relatively high weight gas hourly space velocity (30000 mL g cat −1 h −1 ), the Ru/Y 2 O 3 with Ru content of 5 wt. % can catalyze NH 3 decomposition with excellent catalytic activity and can achieve nearly complete NH 3 conversion at 475 °C, superior to many typical oxides supported Ru catalysts. The Ru/Y 2 O 3 catalyst is also highly stable for NH 3 decomposition, and the activity can be well maintained in a period of 100 hours. Characterization results reveal that the superior catalytic performance of Ru/Y 2 O 3 for NH 3 decomposition reaction may originate from the high dispersion of Ru nanoparticles as well as their strong interaction with Y 2 O 3 support. This work offers opportunity to achieve new kind of active and stable oxide supported Ru catalysts for NH 3 decomposition reaction.