Solvothermal synthesis of MOF-derived supported Ru nanocatalysts for low-temperature ammonia synthesis

We report the synthesis and scale-up of Ru catalysts that use high porosity MOF templates grown on graphitic carbon supports via solvothermal synthesis. Thermal treatment of the MOF resulted in well-dispersed Ru nanoparticles that are fully stabilized by in-situ graphitization of the surrounding carbon. The resulting catalyst has demonstrated significant improvement in activity for low-temperature NH3 synthesis, and catalyst production has been scaled up from 1 g per batch to 200 g per batch scales.

Automated summary

In this study, we synthesized and scaled up Ru catalysts using high porosity MOF templates grown on graphitic carbon supports via solvothermal synthesis. Thermal treatment of the MOF resulted in well-dispersed Ru nanoparticles that were fully stabilized by in-situ graphitization of the surrounding carbon. The resulting catalyst showed significant improvement in activity for low-temperature NH3 synthesis, and the production of catalysts was scaled up from 1 g per batch to 200 g per batch.