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Updated: May 26, 2026

Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Supported on Carbon Nanotube with Doped Co and N Atoms and its Catalytic Applications in Hydrogen Production
Published on: December 6, 2021
Constructing Intermediate Encapsulation on Ru/CeO2 Nanocatalysts to Enhance Ammonia Synthesis
Bingwei Chen1, Xiaojuan Hu1, Jinting Hao1
1Center of Electron Microscopy and State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
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Engineering the metal-support interfacial structure in supported heterogeneous catalysts opens wide opportunities to tailor catalytic performance, particularly by exploiting strong metal-support interactions (SMSI) that modify active-site electronic and geometric properties to tune adsorption energetics, activity and stability. However, designing SMSI that simultaneously meets the geometric requirement of sufficient active site exposure, and the electronic requirement remains challenging. Here, we achieved an intermediate encapsulation by forming crystallographically defined CeOx overlayers on Ru/CeO2 via a Ru-precursor-mediated route. Using Ru3(CO)12 as the precursors creates a locally reducing environment on CeO2{100}, inducing localized surface modification and formation of truncated-pyramid-shaped SMSI overlayers on Ru with a height of ∼2-3 atomic layers (Ru/CeO2─CO). By contrast, catalysts prepared from Ru(NO)(NO3)3 (Ru/CeO2─NO3) show no SMSI encapsulation. Ru/CeO2─CO exhibits significantly higher oxygen-vacancy concentrations both overall and within the SMSI layer, which promotes electron transfer from the interface and overlayer to the Ru nanoparticles. The formation of electron-rich Ru species, without blocking a significant number of active sites, facilitates nitrogen activation and enhances catalytic ammonia synthesis. This work presents a novel strategy to construct intermediate SMSI encapsulation and also provides mechanistic insight into precursor-dependent activity at the nanoscale.
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