The influence of phase and morphology of molybdenum nitrides on ammonia synthesis activity and reduction characteristics

The reactivities of a series of ternary and binary molybdenum nitrides have been compared. Data have been obtained for the catalytic synthesis of ammonia at 400 °C and ambient pressure using a 3:1 H₂:N₂ mixture. Amongst the ternary nitrides, the mass normalised activity is in the order Co₃Mo₃N>Fe₃Mo₃N?Ni₂Mo₃N. For the binary molybdenum nitrides, the ammonia synthesis activity is significantly lower than that of Co₃Mo₃N and Fe₃Mo₃N and varies in the order γ-Mo₂N∼β-Mo₂N_0.78?δ-MoN. Nanorod forms of β-Mo₂N_0.78 and γ-Mo₂N exhibit generally similar activities to conventional polycrystalline samples, demonstrating that the influence of catalyst morphology is limited for these two materials. In order to characterise the reactivity of the lattice nitrogen species of the nitrides, temperature programmed reactions with a 3:1 H₂:Ar mixture at temperatures up to 700 °C have been performed. For all materials studied, the predominant form of nitrogen lost was N₂, with smaller amounts of NH₃ being formed. Post-reaction powder diffraction analyses demonstrated lattice shifts in the case of Co₃Mo₃N and Ni₂Mo₃N upon temperature programmed reaction with H₂/Ar. Incomplete decomposition yielding mixtures of Mo metal and the original phase were observed for Fe₃Mo₃N and γ-Mo₂N, whilst β-Mo₂N_0.78 transforms completely to Mo metal and δ-MoN is converted to γ-Mo₂N.