Catalytic Behavior of K-doped Fe/MgO Catalysts for Ammonia Synthesis Under Mild Reaction Conditions

An important part of realizing a carbon-neutral society using ammonia will be the development of an inexpensive yet efficient catalyst for ammonia synthesis under mild reaction conditions (<400 °C, <10 MPa). Here, we report Fe/K(3)/MgO, fabricated via an impregnation method, as a highly active catalyst for ammonia synthesis under mild reaction conditions (350 °C, 1.0 MPa). At the mentioned conditions, the activity of Fe/K(3)/MgO (17.5 mmol h−1 gcat−1) was greater than that of a commercial fused iron catalyst (8.6 mmol h−1 gcat−1) currently used in the Haber–Bosch process. K doping was found to increase the dispersion and turnover frequency of Fe in our Fe/K(3)/MgO catalyst. In addition, increasing the pressure to 3.0 MPa at the same temperature led to a significant improvement of the ammonia synthesis rate to 29.6 mmol h−1 gcat−1, which was much higher than that of two more expensive, benchmark Ru-based catalysts, which are also potential alternative catalysts. A kinetics analysis revealed that the addition of K dramatically enhanced the ammonia synthesis activity at ≥300 °C by changing the main adsorbed species from NH to N which can significantly accelerate dissociative adsorption of nitrogen as the rate limiting step in ammonia synthesis.