Tuning the catalytic CO hydrogenation to straight- and long-chain aldehydes/alcohols and olefins/paraffins.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27708269.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms13058 and PMC identifier 5059682.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The catalytic CO hydrogenation is one of the most versatile large-scale chemical syntheses leading to variable chemical feedstock. While traditionally mainly methanol and long-chain hydrocarbons are produced by CO hydrogenation, here we show that the same reaction can be tuned to produce long-chain n-aldehydes, 1-alcohols and olefins, as well as n-paraffins over potassium-promoted CoMn catalysts. The sum selectivity of aldehydes and alcohols is usually >50 wt% whereof up to ∼97% can be n-aldehydes. While the product slate contains ∼60% n-aldehydes at /pCO=0.5, a 65/35% slate of paraffins/alcohols is obtained at a ratio of 9. A linear Anderson-Schulz-Flory behaviour, independent of the /pCO ratio, is found for the sum of C4+ products. We advocate a synergistic interaction between a Mn5O8 oxide and a bulk Co2C phase, promoted by the presence of potassium, to be responsible for the unique product spectra in our studies.