In Situ Gas-Cell Electron Microscopy Reveals Pressure-Selected Restructuring Pathways in AuRu Ammonia Catalysts

Authors
Amy S McKeown-Green,
Parivash Moradifar,
Zisheng Zhang,
Cedric Lim,
Andrew Barnum,
Lin Yuan,
Robert Sinclair,
Frank Abild-Pedersen,
Colin Ophus,
Jennifer A Dionne
Year of publication
2026
Journal
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Issue
37
Volume
148
Starting page
39609
Ending page
39622

Bimetallic catalysts provide new routes toward sustainable ammonia synthesis, but their nanoscale structural dynamics under reaction-relevant conditions remain poorly understood. Here, we combine in situ gas-cell and multimodal electron microscopy to determine how temperature, gas pressure, and chemistry select among distinct restructuring pathways in AuRu nanoparticle catalysts. Initially, the AuRu nanoparticles form polycrystalline face-centered cubic (FCC) alloys with Au/Ru intermixing. Elevated temperature (≥350 °C) induces intraparticle phase segregation into distinct Au-rich (FCC) and Ru-rich hexagonal close-packed (HCP) domains that exhibit localized plasmonic modes. Atmospheric-pressure 3:1 H2:N2 gas unlocks a distinct restructuring regime absent at lower pressures, characterized by pronounced faceting and nanovoid formation. Systematic gas variation identifies hydrogen as the dominant driver. Density functional theory-trained machine-learning interatomic potentials and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations reveal that H–Ru interactions enhance the Au/Ru diffusivity mismatch, promoting vacancy accumulation and nanovoid formation. Together, these results show that, rather than simply accelerating the thermally driven phase segregation observed at lower pressures, atmospheric-pressure H2:N2 gas redirects restructuring toward faceting and nanovoid formation through a gas-mediated Kirkendall-type mechanism.

Funding sources