Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Ruthenium on Dysprosium‐Praseodymium Oxide Catalysts for Ammonia Synthesis and Decomposition in the Hydrogen Energy Vector Transition

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.% Dy 2 O 3 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, CO 2 ‐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.