Ru<sub>1</sub>Co<i><sub>n</sub></i> Single-Atom Alloy for Enhancing Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis
Ge Meng, Jiaqiang Sun, Lei Tao, Kaiyue Ji, Pengfei Wang, Yu Wang, Xiaohui Sun, Tingting Cui, Shixuan Du, Jiangang Chen, Dingsheng Wang, Yadong Li
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 Ru1Con single-atom alloy (SAA) catalyst with isolated Ru atoms anchored onto a Co nanoparticle surface through a two-dimensional confinement strategy to achieve greatly improved FTS activity (2.6 molCO molM–1 h–1) and long-chain hydrocarbon selectivity (C5+: 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 Ru1Con 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.