Support Effect of Boron Nitride on the First N-H Bond Activation of NH₃ on Ru Clusters

Support effect is an important issue in heterogeneous catalysis, while the explicit role of a catalytic support is often unclear for catalytic reactions. A systematic density functional theory computational study is reported in this paper to elucidate the effect of a model boron nitride (BN) support on the first N-H bond activation step of NH₃ on Ru_n (n = 1, 2, 3) metal clusters. Geometry optimizations and energy calculations were carried out using density functional theory (DFT) calculation for intermediates and transition states from the starting materials undergoing the N-H activation process. The primary findings are summarized as follows. The involvement of the model BN support does not significantly alter the equilibrium structure of intermediates and transition states in the most favorable pathway (MFP). Moreover, the involvement of BN support decreases the free energy of activation, ΔG^≠, thus improving the reaction rate constant. This improvement is more obvious at high temperatures like 673 K than low temperatures like 298 K. The BN support effect leading to the ΔG^≠ decrease is most significant for the single Ru atom case among all three cases studied. Finally, the involvement of the model BN may change the spin transition behavior of the reaction system during the N-H bond activation process. All these findings provide a deeper insight into the support effect on the N-H bond activation of NH₃ for the supported Ru catalyst in particular and for supported transition metal catalysts in general.