MOF-Derived Ru<sub>1</sub>Zr<sub>1</sub>/Co Dual-Atomic-Site Catalyst with Promoted Performance for Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis
Jiaqiang Sun, Lei Tao, Chenliang Ye, Yu Wang, Ge Meng, Hengyuan Lei, Shenke Zheng, Chuang Xing, Xin Tao, Pengfei Wu, Jiangang Chen, Shixuan Du, Dingsheng Wang, Yadong Li
Abstract
Cobalt-based catalysts have been widely used for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) in industry; however, achieving rational catalyst design at the atomic level and thereby a higher activity and more long-chain-hydrocarbon products simultaneously remain an attractive and difficult challenge. The dual-atomic-site catalysts with unique electronic and geometric interface interactions offer a great opportunity for exploiting advanced FTS catalysts with improved performance. Herein, we designed a Ru 1 Zr 1 /Co catalyst with Ru and Zr dual atomic sites on the Co nanoparticle (NP) surface through a metal–organic-framework-mediated synthesis strategy which presents greatly enhanced FTS activity (high turnover frequency of 3.8 × 10 –2 s –1 at 200 °C) and C 5+ selectivity (80.7%). Control experiments presented a synergic effect between Ru and Zr single-atom site on Co NPs. Further density functional theory calculations of the chain growth process from C 1 to C 5 revealed that the designed Ru/Zr dual sites remarkably lower the rate-limiting barriers due to the significantly weakened C–O bond and promote the chain growth processes, resulting in the greatly boosted FTS performance. Therefore, our work demonstrates the effectiveness of dual-atomic-site design in promoting the FTS performance and provides new opportunities for developing efficient industrial catalysts.