Facile Fabrication of BCN Nanosheet-Encapsulated Nano-Iron as Highly Stable Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Catalyst

The few layered boron carbon nitride nanosheets (BCNNSs) have attracted widespread attention in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, we report an innovative one-pot route to prepare the catalyst of BCNNSs-encapsulated sub-10 nm highlydispersed nanoiron particles. Then the novel catalyst was used in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for the first,time and it exhibited high activity and superior stability. At a high temperature of 320 degrees C, CO conversion could reach 88.9%, corresponding, catalytic activity per grain of iron (iron time yield, FTY) of 0.9 X 10(-4) mol(co) g(Fe)(-1) s(-1), more than 200 times higher than that of pure iron. Notably, no obvious, deactivation was observed after 1000 h running. The enhanced stability of the catalyst can be ascribed to the special encapsulated structure. Furthermore, the formation mechanism of highly dispersed iron nanoparticle also was elaborated. This approach opens the way to designing metal nanoparticles with both high stability and reactivity for nanocatalysts in hydrogenation application.