ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Lithium-nitrogen-hydrogen?transition metal composites for catalytic ammonia cracking: in situ neutron powder diffraction

Abstract: Metal-nitrogen-hydrogen materials are an emerging family of affordable, earth-abundant catalysts for ammonia cracking, a critical process towards enabling the use of ammonia in energy storage. Lithium imide has been shown to out-perform commercial ruthenium-based catalysts1, and its activity may be further enhanced through the addition of transition metals2, although uncertainty persists surrounding the nature of the active phase and the role of the transition metals. Understanding in these areas is critical to inform the future design of these catalysts and thereby enable the wider use of ammonia as a zero-carbon energy store. We request 4 days on POLARIS to conduct an in situ structural investigation on three composite ammonia decomposition catalysts: lithium imide?Cr, ?Mn, and ?Fe. We wish to probe the active form of the catalysts, determining whether the imide and transition metal species form an active ternary nitride or if transition metals affect the interconversion between lithium imide and amide.

Principal Investigator: Dr Josh Makepeace
Experimenter: Miss Ezri McGarrigle
Experimenter: Dr Fatima Abi Ghaida
Experimenter: Miss Bakhtawar Ahmed
Experimenter: Miss Caitlin Brooker-Davis
Experimenter: Dr Tom Wood
Local Contact: Dr Ronald Smith
Experimenter: Professor Bill David

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2310358

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2310358

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Josh Makepeace et al; (2025): Lithium-nitrogen-hydrogen?transition metal composites for catalytic ammonia cracking: in situ neutron powder diffraction, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2310358

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.