PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY III

RESUMED BY:
MUHAMMAD REZA ( 1106103040017) = 50%
MARYAM JAMILAH (1106103040009) = 50%
AMMONIA SYNTHESIS
Ammonia is synthesized over a promoted iron metal catalysts by Haber-
Bosch process. Ammonia is formed from its constituents, nitrogen and hydrogen
at 400
0
C. The reaction as below:
N
2
(g) + 3H
2
(g) 2NH
3
(g)
The reaction toward the target product NH
3
is therefore
thermodynamically favored at low temperature and high pressure. This
equilibrium limitation at practical conditions requires loop operation with
recovery of the easly condens able product gas. The feed gases are prepared from
air; nitrogen and hydrogen.
For synthesize ammonia, the catalyst which usually used is iron (Fe),
except Fe, only Ru has been found to be a practically useful catalyst. Ammonia
always used as artificial fertilizer. In environmental catalysis, ammonia is apllied
as reducing agent for nitrogen oxides emitted in power plants and more recently
also in automotive vehicles.
The mechanism of ammonia synthesis is one of the best known in
heterogenous catalysis, besides CO oxidation on Pt. The reaction is started by
adsorption of N
2
on iron is slow and is characterized by a very low sticking
coefficient and high activation energy. In contrast, the adsorbtion of dihydrogen
on iron is fast and characterized by a high sticking coefficient ( ca. 10
-1
) and
extremely small activation barrier.
Adsorbed dinitrogen could be excluded as a reactive intermediate in the
catalytic reaction. The involvement of adsorbed N atoms in the rate-determining
step was also demonstrated by kinetics experiment. Other less stable and less
abundant surface intermediates include NH and NH
2
species.
Based on the following sequence of elementary steps was formulated (
*

denotes a surface site):
N
2
+ 2
*
2 N
ads

H
2
+ 2
*
2 H
ads

N
ads
+ H
ads
NH
ads
+
*

NH
ads
+ H
ads
NH
2ads
+
*

NH
2ads
+ H
ads
NH
3
+ 2
*

Decomposition of N
2
is exothermic, whereas the steps involved in
successive hydrogenation yielding NH
x
species are endothermic. The addition of
the first H atom is the most difficult step. The promotion of the iron catalyst for
this reaction will decrease the activation energy for dissociative N
2
.