Stability of nanocrystals: Thermodynamic analysis of oxidation and re-reduction of cobalt in water/hydrogen mixtures

The stability of nanosized materials differs significantly from the stability of bulk materials. In this study a thermodynamic analysis on the simultaneous oxidation and re-reduction of small metallic cobalt crystallites in the presence of water and hydrogen as a function of the crystallite diameter was performed as a model for catalyst deactivation in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. It is shown that spherical cobalt crystallites with a diameter less than 4.4 nm are likely to be oxidized under realistic Fischer-Tropsch synthesis conditions (P-H2O/P-H2 < 1.5, T = 493 K).