Issue 13, 2015 - Molybdenum nitride compounds synthesized by Shanxi Coal Chemical Institute

Recently, researchers from the Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, cooperated with the University of Nevada, Sichuan University, and the Beijing Institute of Low Carbon and Clean Energy in the United States to synthesize new molybdenum nitride compounds under high pressure conditions, which showed good application prospects
in catalytic hydrogenation research.

Nitrogen-rich transition metal nitrides are the most promising catalysts for the next generation of clean energy and renewable energy
.
However, the process of infiltrating nitrogen atoms into the crystal lattice of transition metals to form nitrides is extremely difficult
.
The researchers used high-temperature and high-pressure solid-phase ion exchange to prepare the newly structured, nitrogen-rich molybdenum-nitrogen binary compound 3R-MoN2
.

The application of the nitride to the hydrodesulfurization catalytic reaction of petroleum shows that under the same conditions, its catalytic activity is 3 times that of the traditional molybdenum disulfide catalyst, and the hydrogenation selectivity is 2 times
that of molybdenum disulfide.
In addition, the substance has strong acid resistance and can be used in the methanation process
of acid syngas.
Preliminary results show that the conversion of CO and H2 can reach more than 80%, which is expected to replace molybdenum disulfide as the parent material
for the next generation of catalysts.
At the same time, if the material is peeled between layers, it is also expected to prepare new two-dimensional molybdenum nitride materials with graphene-like structure, which are widely used
in photoelectric materials, energy conversion, environmental catalysis and other fields.
(Zhuo)