Single‐Atom Ru Alloyed with Ni Nanoparticles Boosts CO<sub>2</sub> Methanation
Tengfei Zhang, Peng Zheng, Jiajian Gao, Zhennan Han, Fangna Gu, Wenqing Xu, Lina Li, Tingyu Zhu, Ziyi Zhong, Guangwen Xu, Fabing Su
Abstract
Abstract Designing catalysts to proceed with catalytic reactions along the desired reaction pathways, e.g., CO 2 methanation, has received much attention but remains a huge challenge. This work reports one Ru 1 Ni single‐atom alloy (SAA) catalyst (Ru 1 Ni/SiO 2 ) prepared via a galvanic replacement reaction between RuCl 3 and Ni nanoparticles (NPs) derived from the reduction of Ni phyllosilicate (Ni‐ph). Ru 1 Ni/SiO 2 achieved much improved selectivity toward hydrogenation of CO 2 to CH 4 and catalytic activity (Turnover frequency (TOF) value: 40.00 × 10 −3 s −1 ), much higher than those of Ni/SiO 2 (TOF value: 4.40 × 10 −3 s −1 ) and most reported Ni‐based catalysts (TOF value: 1.03 × 10 −3 –11.00 × 10 −3 s −1 ). Experimental studies verify that Ru single atoms are anchored onto the Ni NPs surface via the Ru 1 –Ni coordination accompanied by electron transfer from Ru 1 to Ni. Both in situ experiments and theoretical calculations confirm that the interface sites of Ru 1 Ni‐SAA are the intrinsic active sites, which promote the direct dissociation of CO 2 and lower the energy barrier for the hydrogenation of CO* intermediate, thereby directing and enhancing the CO 2 hydrogenation to CH 4 .