Boosting CO hydrogenation towards C<sub>2+</sub> hydrocarbons over interfacial TiO<sub>2-x</sub>/Ni catalysts.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36344530.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-34463-7 and PMC identifier 9640681.
- 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
Considerable attention has been drawn to tune the geometric and electronic structure of interfacial catalysts via modulating strong metal-support interactions (SMSI). Herein, we report the construction of a series of TiO2-x/Ni catalysts, where disordered TiO2-x overlayers immobilized onto the surface of Ni nanoparticles (~20 nm) are successfully engineered with SMSI effect. The optimal TiO2-x/Ni catalyst shows a CO conversion of ~19.8% in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) process under atmospheric pressure at 220 °C. More importantly, ~64.6% of the product is C2+ paraffins, which is in sharp contrast to the result of the conventional Ni catalyst with the main product being methane. A combination study of advanced electron microscopy, multiple in-situ spectroscopic characterizations, and density functional theory calculations indicates the presence of Niδ-/TiO2-x interfacial sites, which could bind carbon atom strongly, inhibit methane formation and facilitate the C-C chain propagation, lead to the production of C2+ hydrocarbon on Ni surface.