Upon annealing in NO2, initially planar Ru(11-20) becomes fully faceted and covered with 'hill and valley' structure consisting of facets on the nanaometer scale. The LEED spots corresponding to planar Ru(11-20) disappear completely and the new LEED spots appear which are characteristic of the faceted surface exposing new crystal faces. The facet orientations were determined using kinematical LEED simulations and confirmed by STM measurements. Reaction of NH3 has been performed on the nano-faceted O/Ru(11-20) that was prepared by annealing in NO2 (NO2 dissociates on Ru and only oxygen remains on the surface at T > 600K). We have discovered that nano-faceted O/Ru is highly active for room temperature production of H2 from NH3 with high selectivity to N2.

Highly active O/Ru nano-facets for production of H2 from NH3

244th National Meeting (2012)

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