Ten kinds of activated carbon from different raw materials were used as supports to prepare ruthenium catalysts. N2 physisorption and CO chemisorption were carried out to investigate the pore size distribution and the ruthenium dispersion of the catalysts. It was found that the Ru dispersion of the catalyst was closely related to not only the texture of carbon support but also the purity of activated carbon. The activities of a series of the carbon-supported barium-promoted Ru catalysts for ammonia synthesis were measured at 425 ℃, 10.0 MPa and 10 000 h-1. The result shows that the same raw material activated carbon, with a high purity, high surface area, large pore volume and reasonable pore size distribution might disperse ruthenium and promoter sufficiently, which activated carbon as support, could be used to manufacture ruthenium catalyst with a high activity for ammonia synthesis. The different raw material activated carbon as the support would greatly influence the catalytic properties of the ruthenium catalyst for ammonia synthesis. For example, with coconut shell carbon(AC1) as the support, the ammonia concentration in the effluent was 13.17% over 4%Ru-BaO/AC1 catalyst, while with the desulfurized coal carbon(AC10) as the support, that in the effluent was only 1.37% over 4%Ru-BaO/AC10 catalyst.