Project description
Cost-efficient catalysts for ammonia synthesis
Ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, is mainly used to manufacture synthetic fertilisers. Traditionally, ammonia production has been carried out through the Haber–Bosch process, which, despite being effective, is expensive as it requires high temperatures. To reduce the reaction temperatures, researchers have turned to ruthenium – a transition metal that is deemed an efficient catalyst for ammonia synthesis as it operates under milder conditions than traditional iron-based catalysts. Considering the high cost of ruthenium for commercialisation, further research into the design of less costly catalysts is necessary. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CATALYSTNH3SYNTHESIS project will tap into the potential of intermetallic compounds as catalysts for ammonia production, which have so far received poor attention compared to metals and alloys.
Objective
Intermetallic compounds (IMCs) exhibit unique structural features accompanied by appropriate changes in the electronic properties. IMCs with their unique magnetic and electric properties have been studied for the superconductivity, shape-memory effects, hydrogen storage capability and for topological insulator applications. However, their catalytic properties have been overlooked so far compared to metals and alloys. These electronically and geometrically tuned structures were found to be excellent catalysts for selected chemical reactions such as semi-hydrogenation of alkynes, hydrogenation of CO and CO2 and unsaturated compounds. Only few works exist on IMCs in the activation of inert molecule N2 but they appear to be promising in this direction. Activation of N2 is a significant step in the synthesis of ammonia (NH3). Even after 100 years of discovery, the same old high-energy consuming Fe based catalytic process is still operated commercially.5 The absence of significant success towards a further development of Fe based catalysts stipulates to look at alternative totally different catalysts. In this regard, Ruthenium(Ru) based catalyst supported on carbon emerged as second-generation catalysts for the ammonia synthesis at the end of 20th century.6 Considering the high cost of Ru for commercialization, further research and development towards the design of less costly catalysts is necessary. In this project, we propose to explore and evaluate nano intermetallic compounds for the activation of N2 molecule, thereby supporting the efficiency and competiveness towards ammonia synthesis. The main objective of the project is to design, optimize and explore the potentiality of novel nano Intermetallic Compound (IMC) supported catalysts for the NH3 synthesis. This project will in particular study the role of electronic and geometrical factors displayed by IMCs in the catalytic process through various characterization techniques including the in situ and operando.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinator
1348 Louvain La Neuve
Belgium