Reaction mechanism of ammonia oxidation over RuO2(1Â 1Â 0): A combined theory/experiment approach

Combining state-of-the-art density functional theory (DFT) calculations with high resolution core level shift spectroscopy experiments we explored the reaction mechanism of the ammonia oxidation reaction over RuO2(1 1 0). The high catalytic activity of RuO2(1 1 0) is traced to the low activation energies for the successive hydrogen abstractions of ammonia by on-top O (less than 73 kJ/mol) and the low activation barrier for the recombination of adsorbed O and N (77 kJ/mol) to form adsorbed NO. The NO desorption is activated by 121 kJ/mol and represents therefore the rate determining step in the ammonia oxidation reaction over RuO2 (1 1 0).