ON THE PATH TO CATALYSTS FOR THE LOW-TEMPERATURE AMMONIA-SYNTHESIS

A nontraditional approach to the development of catalysts for low-temp erature ammonia synthesis is considered. The approach is characterized by application of catalysts representing heterogeneous analogs of the known homogeneous nitrogen-fixing systems based on transition metal c ompounds and strong electron donors. The use of this approach led to t he development of catalysts that considerably surpass in their activit y (at atmospheric pressure) the industrial catalyst for the ammonia sy nthesis. Some of the developed catalysts are active in the formation o f ammonia from dinitrogen and dihidrogen even at 110-150 degrees C. Th e mechanisms of activation and hydrogenation of dinitrogen over these new catalysts are discussed.