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Potassium‐Promoted Molybdenum Carbide as a Highly Active and Selective Catalyst for CO 2 Conversion to CO
Author(s) -
Porosoff Marc D.,
Baldwin Jeffrey W.,
Peng Xi,
Mpourmpakis Giannis,
Willauer Heather D.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201700412
Subject(s) - catalysis , molybdenum , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , carbide , water gas shift reaction , potassium , chemical engineering , seawater , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , materials science , raw material , organic chemistry , engineering , geology , oceanography
The high concentration of CO 2 bound in seawater represents a significant opportunity to extract and use this CO 2 as a C 1 feedstock for synthetic fuels. Using an existing process, CO 2 and H 2 can be concurrently extracted from seawater and then catalytically reacted to produce synthetic fuel. Hydrogenating CO 2 directly into liquid hydrocarbons is exceptionally difficult, but by first identifying a catalyst for selective CO production through the reverse water–gas shift (RWGS) reaction, CO can then be hydrogenated to fuel through Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis. Results of this study demonstrate that potassium‐promoted molybdenum carbide supported on γ‐Al 2 O 3 (K‐Mo 2 C/γ‐Al 2 O 3 ) is a low‐cost, stable, and highly selective catalyst for RWGS over a wide range of conversions. These findings are supported by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations.