Journal
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
Volume 16, Issue 18, Pages 5379-5384Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1002/chem.200902371
Keywords
ammonia; calorimetry; carbon nanotubes; confinement; ruthenium
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [20503033]
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2006CB932703]
- Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China [NCET06-0281]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been shown to modify some properties of nanomaterials and to modify chemical reactions confined inside their channels, which are formed by curved graphene layers. Here we studied ammonia synthesis over Ru as a probe reaction to understand the effect of the electron structure of CNTs on the confined metal particles and their catalytic activity. The catalyst with Ru nanoparticles dispersed almost exclusively on the exterior nanotube surface exhibits a higher activity than the CNT-confined Ru, although both have a similar metal particle size. Characterization with TEM, N-2 physisorption, H-2 chemisorption, temperature-programmed reduction. CO adsorption microcalorimetry, and first-principles calculations suggests that the outside Ru exhibits a higher electron density than the inside Ru. As a result, the dissociative adsorption of N-2 which is an electrophilic process and the rate-determining step of ammonia synthesis. is more facile over the outside Ru than that over the inside one.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available