Ru₁Co_n Single-Atom Alloy for Enhancing Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis

Abstract

Fischer−Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is a significant catalytic process for the production of liquid fuel and fine chemicals from natural gas-, coal-, and biomass-derived syngas. However, exploring high-performance catalysts and understanding the catalytic mechanism remain challenging. Herein, we design a Ru 1 Co n single-atom alloy (SAA) catalyst with isolated Ru atoms anchored onto a Co nanoparticle surface through a twodimensional confinement strategy to achieve greatly improved FTS activity (2.6 mol CO mol M −1 h −1 ) and long-chain hydrocarbon selectivity (C 5 + : 86.0%) at a low reaction temperature of 150 °C. A series of in situ experiments, catalytic tests, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the Ru single-atom sites in Ru 1 Co n SAA are more active for the FTS reaction than pure Ru and Co surfaces. This is because single-atom Ru with a much higher electronic density near the Fermi level could effectively and simultaneously decrease the rate-limiting barriers of both C−O splitting and chain growth processes. This work demonstrates the possibility of designing Ru single-atom sites to improve FTS performance and provides a deeper understanding of the strategy for developing other high-performance industrial catalysts.

Research Progress and Application of Single-Atom Catalysts: A Review

“…It exhibits superior catalytic performance in heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Meng et al [21] designed the Ru 1 Con alloy catalyst through a two-dimensional restriction strategy. The isolated ruthenium atoms are fixed on the surface of cobalt nanoparticles, and the catalyst has significantly improved activity and long-chain hydrocarbon selectivity in the FTS reaction at a lower reaction temperature.…”

Towards the object-oriented design of active hydrogen evolution catalysts on single-atom alloys

“…The homogeneously dispersed Ni-based binary alloys (e.g. NiMo, NiAl, Ni3Al, NiGa and NiIn) were synthesized via a thermal hydrogen treatment method on the Ni foam substrate [64][65][66][67] curves show that all the fabricated Ni-based bimetallic electrocatalysts, which were inspired by the CATIDPy workflow, exhibit superior HER performances to the bare Ni foam, with obvious lower overpotentials (η) to achieve the same current densities (j). Furthermore, the corresponding η of the electrocatalysts at the j of 10, 50, 100 and 200 mA cm -2 were also collected from at least 3 independent tests (see Fig.…”

Structures and electronic properties of functional molecules on metal substrates: From single molecule to self‐assemblies

“…However, the optimized vdW functionals overestimate barrier difference between CH and OH bond breaking, and fail to describe the catalytic selectivity. Therefore, to correctly predict the catalytic activity and selectivity of different reaction pathways, 136 the vdW functionals need to give the same accuracy towards all key adsorbates in on‐surface reaction. Besides, ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, which consider steric and temperature effects, enable understanding the bond dissociation and reforming process during chemical reaction.…”