Al2O3-Supported Transition Metals for Plasma-Catalytic NH3 Synthesis in a DBD Plasma: Metal Activity and Insights into Mechanisms

N2 fixation into NH3 is one of the main processes in chemical industry. Plasma catalysis among environmentally friendly alternatives to industrial energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. However, many questions remain open, such as applicability conventional catalytic knowledge plasma. In this work, we studied performance Al2O3-supported Fe, Ru, Co and Cu catalysts plasma-catalytic synthesis a DBD reactor. We investigated effects different active metals, ratios feed gas components, on concentration production rate NH3, energy consumption plasma system. The results show that trend metal activity (common for thermal catalysis) does not appear case catalysis: here, all metals exhibited similar performance. These findings are good agreement with our recently published microkinetic model. This highlights virtual independence catalyst material, thus validating model indicating potential contribution radical adsorption Eley-Rideal reactions mechanism synthesis.