Photo-Driven Syngas Conversion to Lower Olefins over Oxygen-Decorated Fe5C2 Catalyst

With the depletion of crude oil and especially the growing demand for lower olefins, the direct conversion of syngas into lower olefins via the Fischer-Tropsch to olefins (FTO) process is a promising alternative for the petroleum route. A photo-driven FTO process can dramatically change the product selectivity over Fe5C2 catalyst, leading to an olefin/paraffin ratio of 10.9 with CO conversion >49%. The selectivity toward CO2 was as low as 18.9%, ensuring a high carbon resource utilization efficiency, and the catalyst showed good stability. Under the photo-irradiation condition, the surface of the Fe5C2 catalyst was spontaneously decorated by O atoms formed in situ, resulting in a high selectivity to olefins, which makes it an excellent catalyst for photo-driven FTO reaction.