Titania-Supported Ni2P/Ni Catalysts for Selective Solar-Driven CO Hydrogenation

Solar-driven Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) holds great potential for the sustainable production of fuels from syngas and solar energy. However, the selectivity toward multi-carbon products (C2+) is often hampered by the difficulty in the regulation of transition metals acting as both light absorption units and active sites. Herein, a partial phosphidation strategy to prepare titania supported Ni2P/Ni catalysts for photothermal FTS is demonstrated. Under Xenon lamp or concentrated sunlight irradiation, the optimized catalyst shows a C2+ selectivity of 70% at a CO conversion of >20%. Conversely, nickel metal in the absence of Ni2P delivers negligible C2+ products (approximate to 1%) with methane being the major product (>90%). Structural characterization and density functional theory calculation reveal that the partial phosphidation allows exposed metallic Ni to be active for CO adsorption and activation, while the existence of Ni2P/Ni interface is responsible to inhibit CO methanation and promote C-C coupling of adsorbed *CH intermediates. This work introduces a novel phosphidation strategy for nickel-based photothermal catalysts in efficiently harnessing solar energy, and regulating the reaction pathways for CO hydrogenation to deliver high value products.

Automated summary

This research demonstrates a partial phosphidation strategy to prepare titania supported Ni2P/Ni photothermal catalysts, which can enhance the selectivity of multi-carbon products (C2+) in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and efficiently harness solar energy for high value product production.