Effect of ultrasonic power on the structure of activated carbon and the activities of Ru/AC catalyst

Ruthenium-based materials are the second-generation catalysts for ammonia synthesis. Ruthenium is less inhibited by ammonia, less sensitive to poisons, and more active than the traditional iron-based catalyst. The relatively high cost of Ru compared to that of iron requires a high dispersion of the metal on a suitable support. Carbon-supported Ru catalysts with promoters have been reported to be active for ammonia synthesis. The ultrasonic technique has been proven to be beneficial to the preparation of supported catalysts. In this paper, the effects of ultrasonic treatment on the surface texture, oxygen groups of activated carbon (AC) as well as ruthenium dispersion were investigated by the employments of N2 physisorption, TPD–MS and CO chemisorption respectively. It have been shown that ash content in AC can be effectively eliminated by ultrasonic pretreatment, at the same time, the BET surface area and total pore volume are reduced, and the amount of the decomposable surface oxygen groups are decreased. Furthermore the ash content decrease and the mesopore surface area increase with the ultrasonic power increasing. The activities of a series of barium–potassium–promoted Ru/AC catalysts for ammonia synthesis were tested at 10,000 h−1, 10.0 MPa and 400 °C. The results show that the activities of Ru/AC catalysts which were prepared by ultrasonic treatment are greatly increased, and the optimum pretreatment power is 100 W. The ash content of this carbon support is decreased from 1.39% to 1.15%. As a result, the catalytic activity is improved from 65.3 to 83.8 mmol g−1 h−1.