Abstract
The activity of iridium and platinum sponge catalysts was studied in the low temperature gas phase oxidation of ammonia with oxygen. Under the reaction conditions used, iridium was found to be more active and more selective to nitrogen than platinum. Furthermore it was established from activity measurements that both catalysts lose activity as a function of time on stream due to inhibition of the surface by reaction intermediates. The used catalysts were studied with XPS and temperature programmed techniques. It was found that the surface of the catalysts had a high coverage of NH and OH and some additional NH2. It seems most likely that the reaction mechanism proceeds through a stepwise dehydrogenation of the ammonia molecule. It appears that the last dehydrogenation step (NH by OH to N and water) is the rate determining step. The high selectivity of iridium to nitrogen can be explained by the higher activity of iridium in dissociating NO.
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