CeO2-supported Ru catalysts have high hope for ammonia
synthesis; however, their industrial application in ammonia synthesis
is finite by the presence of the strong metal–support interaction
(SMSI) or Ru encapsulation. Herein, a sacrificial sucrose strategy
was adopted to prepare a CeO2-supported Ru catalyst without
invoking SMSI or Ru encapsulation. Owing to the improvement of the
proportion of Ru0, Ce3+ concentration, number
of the exposed ruthenium species, and Ru–O–Ce bonds,
the catalyst obtained by sacrificial sucrose strategy can adsorb lots
of hydrogen species, and a higher proportion of H species desorb by
way of forming H2, leading to the increase of ammonia synthesis
activity is by 43% in comparison with the catalyst without sucrose
sacrifice.