The active sites of Cu-ZnO catalysts for water gas shift and CO hydrogenation reactions.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34267215.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-24621-8 and PMC identifier 8282834.
- 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
Cu-ZnO-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> catalysts are used as the industrial catalysts for water gas shift (WGS) and CO hydrogenation to methanol reactions. Herein, via a comprehensive experimental and theoretical calculation study of a series of ZnO/Cu nanocrystals inverse catalysts with well-defined Cu structures, we report that the ZnO-Cu catalysts undergo Cu structure-dependent and reaction-sensitive in situ restructuring during WGS and CO hydrogenation reactions under typical reaction conditions, forming the active sites of Cu<sub>Cu(100)</sub>-hydroxylated ZnO ensemble and Cu<sub>Cu(611)</sub>Zn alloy, respectively. These results provide insights into the active sites of Cu-ZnO catalysts for the WGS and CO hydrogenation reactions and reveal the Cu structural effects, and offer the feasible guideline for optimizing the structures of Cu-ZnO-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> catalysts.