Two-dimensional molybdenum carbide 2D-Mo2C as a superior catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 5510
• Main Authors: Zhou, Hui, Chen, Zixuan, Kountoupi, Evgenia, Tsoukalou, Athanasia, Abdala, Paula M., Florian, Pierre, Fedorov, Alexey, Müller, Christoph R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.09.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/131; 140/133; 140/146; 639/301/357/1018; 639/638/77/884; 639/638/77/887; Alkanes; Aluminum oxide; Carbon dioxide; Catalysts; Chemical Sciences; Copper; Dimethyl ether; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogenation; Material chemistry; Metal carbides; Molybdenum; Molybdenum carbide; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Selectivity; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25784-0

Early transitional metal carbides are promising catalysts for hydrogenation of CO 2 . Here, a two-dimensional (2D) multilayered 2D-Mo 2 C material is prepared from Mo 2 C T x of the MXene family. Surface termination groups T x (O, OH, and F) are reductively de-functionalized in Mo 2 C T x (500 °C, pure H 2 ) avoiding the formation of a 3D carbide structure. CO 2 hydrogenation studies show that the activity and product selectivity (CO, CH 4 , C 2 –C 5 alkanes, methanol, and dimethyl ether) of Mo 2 C T x and 2D-Mo 2 C are controlled by the surface coverage of T x groups that are tunable by the H 2 pretreatment conditions. 2D-Mo 2 C contains no T x groups and outperforms Mo 2 C T x , β-Mo 2 C, or the industrial Cu-ZnO-Al 2 O 3 catalyst in CO 2 hydrogenation (evaluated by CO weight time yield at 430 °C and 1 bar). We show that the lack of surface termination groups drives the selectivity and activity of Mo-terminated carbidic surfaces in CO 2 hydrogenation. The development of robust and efficient catalysts for CO 2 hydrogenation to value-added chemicals is an urgent task. Here the authors report two-dimensional carbide catalyst based on earth-abundant molybdenum that hydrogenates CO 2 with high activity, stable performance and tunable selectivity.