Dehydrogenation of ammonia on free-standing and epitaxial hexagonal boron nitride.

We report a thermodynamically feasible mechanism for producing H from NH using hBN as a catalyst. 2D catalysts have exceptional surface areas with unique thermal and electronic properties suited for catalysis. Metal-free, 2D catalysts, are highly desirable materials that can be more sustainable than the ubiquitously employed precious and transition metal-based catalysts. Here, using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we demonstrate that metal-free hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a valid alternative to precious metal catalysts for producing H reaction of ammonia with a boron and nitrogen divacancy (). Our results show that the decomposition of ammonia proceeds on monolayer hBN with an activation energy barrier of 0.52 eV. Furthermore, the reaction of ammonia with epitaxially grown hBN on a Ru(0001) substrate was investigated, and we observed similar NH decomposition energy barriers (0.61 eV), but a much more facile H associative desorption barrier (0.69 eV vs 5.89 eV). H generation from the free-standing monolayer would instead occur through a diffusion process with an energy barrier of 3.36 eV. A detailed analysis of the electron density and charge distribution along the reaction pathways was carried out to rationalise the substrate effects on the catalytic reaction.