Developing highly effective catalysts for ammonia (NH₃) synthesis is a challenging task. Even the current, prevalent iron-derived catalysts used for industrial NH₃ synthesis require harsh reaction conditions and involve massive energy consumption. Here we show that anchoring buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀) onto non-iron transition metals yields cluster-matrix co-catalysts that are highly efficient for NH₃ synthesis. Such co-catalysts feature separate catalytic active sites for hydrogen and nitrogen. The ‘electron buffer’ behaviour of C₆₀ balances the electron density at catalytic transition metal sites and enables the synergistic activation of nitrogen on transition metals in addition to the activation and migration of hydrogen on C₆₀ sites. As demonstrated in long-term, continuous runs, the C₆₀-promoting transition metal co-catalysts exhibit higher NH₃ synthesis rates than catalysts without C₆₀. With the involvement of C₆₀, the rate-determining step in the cluster-matrix co-catalysis is found to be the hydrogenation of *NH₂. C₆₀ incorporation exemplifies a practical approach for solving hydrogen poisoning on a wide variety of oxide-supported Ru catalysts.

开发用于合成氨 （NH₃） 的高效催化剂是一项具有挑战性的任务。即使是目前用于工业 NH₃ 合成的普遍铁衍生催化剂也需要苛刻的反应条件并涉及大量能源消耗。本文表明，将巴克敏斯特富勒烯 （C₆₀） 锚定到非铁过渡金属上可产生对 NH₃ 合成非常有效的团簇基质助催化剂。这种助催化剂具有单独的氢和氮催化活性位点。C₆₀ 的“电子缓冲”行为平衡了催化过渡金属位点的电子密度，除了 C₆₀ 位点上的氢活化和迁移外，还能够协同活化过渡金属上的氮。正如在长期连续运行中所证明的那样，促进 C₆₀ 的过渡金属助催化剂比没有 C₆₀ 的催化剂表现出更高的 NH₃ 合成速率。在 C₆₀ 的参与下，发现团簇基质共催化中的速率确定步骤是 *NH₂ 的氢化。C₆₀ 掺入是解决各种氧化物负载型 Ru 催化剂上氢中毒的实用方法的例证。