The historical development and theory of ammonia synthesis

Abstract

Among the numerous catalytic processes of industry, there is hardly one which has brought so much attention and profit to the study of catalysis as the ammonia synthesis. In a period of twenty years, it has advanced from a state of mere empiricism and fruitless speculation to one of scientific study and technical realization. This development has been described frequently in the past years.1 The introductory researches by Nernst and the fundamental work of Haber in conjunction with the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (now the 1. G. F.) led to the working out of practical, large-scale methods.In this paper, the development is to be treated from the chemical side, and particularly from the point of view of catalysis. For the catalyst is the heart of every catalytic reaction, without whose heartbeat the reaction must stop.2A method of investigation of ammonia catalysts, supported by conclusive experimental work, was first carried out by Nernst and by Haber. The work of Haber goes farther back in point of time, whereas, as far as the high pressure reaction is concerned, Nernst has precedence. In the first work done by Nernst and his associates with high pressure (1906-07) relatively inefficient catalysts were used; platinum foil, finely divided iron, and electrolytically deposited manganese being the only materials applicable.3Similarly, Haber started with weakly active catalysts-finely divided iron, calcium, manganese, chromium, and nickel occupying his attention during 1904-1907. Of course, Haber did not rest content with these, and * Delivered before the "Conference on Catalysis and the Mechanism of Chemical Reactions" at the Dedication of the New Chemical Laboratory, Princeton LTniversity,

Extracting Knowledge from Data through Catalysis Informatics

“…Catalyst materials may contain numerous elements and additional variables such as support material, particle size, dispersion, and loadingthis results in a combinatorial explosion of possibilities. High-throughput testing typically focuses on the composition of catalyst materials and seeks to test as many catalyst compositions as possible. − This is a highly efficient version of the Edisonian trial-and-error approach through which catalysts have been developed for over a century, ,, and requires specialized setups (e.g., parallel reactors or printed catalysts) and rapid approaches for monitoring activity (e.g., thermal or FTIR product detection). − ,, Needless to say, high-throughput combinatorial studies generate a tremendous amount of data, which presents an informatics challenge. For this reason, high-throughput studies were early adopters of machine learning and data science techniques, and several informatics frameworks have been proposed to manage high-throughput catalytic data. ,,,− Reviews of high-throughput catalyst testing have been published previously, − so here we focus primarily on applications of informatics techniques for searching through the high-dimensional space and machine-learning approaches for identifying patterns in the data.…”

“…Despite these enormous complexities, the field of heterogeneous catalysis has made steady and continuous progress in the development of industrial catalysts. This has occurred primarily though two strategies: trial-and-error discovery , and systematic reductionist approaches using model catalysts . The history of the ammonia synthesis catalyst, one of the first and most widely studied catalytic systems, provides a useful illustration of these two principles.…”

“…The history of the ammonia synthesis catalyst, one of the first and most widely studied catalytic systems, provides a useful illustration of these two principles. The original ammonia synthesis catalyst was reported by Haber in the early 1900s and subsequently optimized through trial-and-error testing led by Mittasch and Bosch . This testing included both single- and multicomponent catalysts, and it is estimated that over 10 000 catalytic tests were performed to discover the iron-based catalyst that is still widely used in industry. ,, More modern work has focused on ammonia synthesis as a prototypical reaction, and a wide range of model catalysts based on iron, ruthenium, and molybdenum have been studied with surface-science and spectroscopic techniques .…”

“…The original ammonia synthesis catalyst was reported by Haber in the early 1900s and subsequently optimized through trial-and-error testing led by Mittasch and Bosch . This testing included both single- and multicomponent catalysts, and it is estimated that over 10 000 catalytic tests were performed to discover the iron-based catalyst that is still widely used in industry. ,, More modern work has focused on ammonia synthesis as a prototypical reaction, and a wide range of model catalysts based on iron, ruthenium, and molybdenum have been studied with surface-science and spectroscopic techniques . These studies yielded fundamental insight into the nature of the reaction mechanism and active sites that are active for ammonia synthesis, and the development of novel catalysts such as the ruthenium-based catalysts that maximize the abundance of the active step sites, and Co–Mo catalysts that exhibit optimal nitrogen binding energies .…”

Application of computational approach in plastic pyrolysis kinetic modelling: a review

“…Traditionally, heterogeneous catalysis progresses through abundant experimentation, trial-and-error discoveries [53], and a systematic approach using model catalysts, molecules, and physics-based modelling [54]. One of the most famous examples regarding the experimentation-based approach is the progress made over ammonia synthesis catalyst by Haber and then by Mittasch and Bosch in the first decades of the twentieth century [55]. The final progress and understanding of this reaction were achieved after 10,000 experiments during which different single-and multi-combination of metals led to the final Fe-based catalyst [56].…”