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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

The Synthesis, Characterization and Reactivity of a Series of Ruthenium N-triphosPh Complexes
Published on: April 10, 2015
Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Ruthenium on Dysprosium-Praseodymium Oxide Catalysts for Ammonia Synthesis and
Samuel M Drummond, Jennifer Naglic1,2, Thossaporn Onsree1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Abstract:
Currently, there is a push to reduce reliance on hydrocarbon fuels for energy storage by using hydrogen carriers. One solution is ammonia; however, for use in the hydrogen economy, advances must be made for both ammonia synthesis and decomposition. We have studied several dysprosium-doped praseodymium oxide supports, which were impregnated with ruthenium and tested for ammonia decomposition and ammonia synthesis activities. Some of these dysprosium-praseodymium oxide supports significantly increased the rate of ammonia decomposition, while improving the stability of the catalyst when compared with the non-doped samples. Moreover, an optimum was found close to 20 wt.% Dy2O3 in the support, leading to a near tripling in activity for ammonia synthesis. Further, we have used X-ray diffraction, Raman, UV-vis spectroscopy, temperature programed reduction, CO2-TPD, and CO-diffuse reflectance infrared fourier-transform spectroscopy to understand the leading causes of this improved activity. With this, we highlight the benefit of mixed-phase supports for ammonia decomposition catalysts, which is not required for ammonia synthesis.
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