The application of nitrogen isotopic labelling in operando powder neutron diffraction studies of metal nitride ammonia synthesis catalysts
The application of nitrogen isotopic labelling in operando powder neutron diffraction studies of metal nitride ammonia synthesis catalysts
Recently we found that doping tungsten into Co3Mo3N reduces its ammonia synthesis activity, despite indications that nitrogen is still mobile in its lattice and similar energies for surface nitrogen vacancy formation. In this short paper, we demonstrate operando powder neutron diffraction (PND) to directly compare the behaviour of Co3Mo3N and W-doped Co3Mo2.6W0.4N as a method, to understand nitrogen exchange and mobility differences. PND is ideal for this purpose due to the large scattering length of nitrogen (9.37 fm natural abundance or 14N 9.36 fm) and good contrast with 15N (6.44 fm), that lead to sensitivity to nitrogen site behaviours during the changes.
Ammonia, Diffraction, Neutron, Nitride
Shao, Li
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Daisley, Angela
88540ea0-e9a9-4757-a77d-40e219985875
Casavola, Marianna
a5a1b50c-6fa4-40e8-a155-9df4426f60cd
Hector, Andrew L.
f19a8f31-b37f-4474-b32a-b7cf05b9f0e5
Hargreaves, Justin S.J.
d95754e7-6e2d-4c98-b151-b6b73b0f8024
17 February 2026
Shao, Li
e273c42f-6065-40f8-8077-35a0b8a2505a
Daisley, Angela
88540ea0-e9a9-4757-a77d-40e219985875
Casavola, Marianna
a5a1b50c-6fa4-40e8-a155-9df4426f60cd
Hector, Andrew L.
f19a8f31-b37f-4474-b32a-b7cf05b9f0e5
Hargreaves, Justin S.J.
d95754e7-6e2d-4c98-b151-b6b73b0f8024
Shao, Li, Daisley, Angela, Casavola, Marianna, Hector, Andrew L. and Hargreaves, Justin S.J.
(2026)
The application of nitrogen isotopic labelling in operando powder neutron diffraction studies of metal nitride ammonia synthesis catalysts.
Chemical Engineering Journal, 531, [173932].
(doi:10.1016/j.cej.2026.173932).
Abstract
Recently we found that doping tungsten into Co3Mo3N reduces its ammonia synthesis activity, despite indications that nitrogen is still mobile in its lattice and similar energies for surface nitrogen vacancy formation. In this short paper, we demonstrate operando powder neutron diffraction (PND) to directly compare the behaviour of Co3Mo3N and W-doped Co3Mo2.6W0.4N as a method, to understand nitrogen exchange and mobility differences. PND is ideal for this purpose due to the large scattering length of nitrogen (9.37 fm natural abundance or 14N 9.36 fm) and good contrast with 15N (6.44 fm), that lead to sensitivity to nitrogen site behaviours during the changes.
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Accepted/In Press date: 7 February 2026
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 February 2026
Published date: 17 February 2026
Keywords:
Ammonia, Diffraction, Neutron, Nitride
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510159
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510159
ISSN: 1385-8947
PURE UUID: 7ef645c2-24be-4d20-95da-d0f2d542eefa
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Date deposited: 19 Mar 2026 17:37
Last modified: 20 Mar 2026 03:04
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Contributors
Author:
Li Shao
Author:
Angela Daisley
Author:
Marianna Casavola
Author:
Justin S.J. Hargreaves
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