The performance of Co3Mo3N, Co3Mo3C, and Co6Mo6C for ammonia synthesis has been compared. In contrast to Co3Mo3N, which is active at 400 °C, a reaction temperature of 500 °C, which was preceded by an induction period, was necessary for the establishment of steady state activity for Co3Mo3C. Co6Mo6C was found to be inactive under the conditions tested. During the induction period, nitridation of the Co3Mo3C lattice was found to occur, and this continued throughout the period of steady state reaction with the material transforming in composition toward Co3Mo3N. Taken together, these observations demonstrate that ammonia synthesis activity in ternary cobalt molybdenum systems is associated with the presence of N in the 16c Wyckoff lattice site.

Catalytic hydrogen production from water splitting via electron-coupled proton buffers and earth abundant materials.

We report the development of palladium nanoparticles supported on Mo2C as an active catalyst for the liquid-phase hydrogenation of CO2 to formate under mild reaction conditions (100 °C and 2.0 MPa of a 1 : 1 CO2 : H2 mixture).

The catalytic behaviour of Co 3 Mo 3 C, Co 6 Mo 6 C, Co 3 Mo 3 N and Co 6 Mo 6 N for methane cracking has been studied to determine the relationship between the methane cracking activity and the chemical composition. The characterisation of post-reaction samples showed a complex phase composition with the presence of Co 3 Mo 3 C, α-Co and β-Mo 2 C as catalytic phases and the deposition of different forms of carbon during reaction. Graphical Abstract Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10562-018-2378-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The co-ammonolysis of V(NMe) and Si(NHMe) with ammonia in THF and in the presence of ammonium triflate ([NH][CFSO]) leads to the formation of monolithic gels. Pyrolysing these gels produces mesoporous composite materials containing nanocrystalline VN and amorphous silicon imidonitride. Elemental mapping indicated a thorough distribution of VN with no evidence of large cluster segregation. Whilst not active for ammonia synthesis, the silicon nitride based materials were found to possess activity for the CO-free production of H from methane, which makes them candidates for applications in which the presence of low levels of CO in H feedstreams is detrimental.