TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of metal dispersion and support structure of Ni/silicalite-1 catalysts on non-thermal plasma (NTP) activated CO2 hydrogenation
AU - Chen, Huanhao
AU - Goodarzi, Farnoosh
AU - Mu, Yibing
AU - Chansai, Sarayute
AU - Mielby, Jerrik Jørgen
AU - Mao, Boyang
AU - Sooknoi, Tawan
AU - Hardacre, Christopher
AU - Kegnæs, Søren
AU - Fan, Xiaolei
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Non-thermal plasma (NTP) activated heterogeneous catalysis is a promising alternative to thermal catalysis for enabling many challenging reactions (e.g. catalytic CO2 hydrogenation) under mild conditions. However, the mechanistic insight into the interaction between highly energetic electrons and vibrationally-exited reactive species with metal catalyst is still lacking. Here, catalytically active Ni nanoparticles supported on silicalite-1 zeolites with different configurations regarding the location of Ni active sites and support pore structures were comparably investigated using catalytic CO2 hydrogenation under the thermal and NTP conditions. Experimental results revealed that the performance of the NTP-catalysis depends on the configuration of the catalysts significantly. Specifically, catalysts with Ni active sites sit on the outer surface of zeolite crystals (i.e. microporous Ni/S1 and Ni/M-S1@Shell with steam-assisted recrystallised micro-meso-porous structure) showed relatively good catalytic performance at a low applied voltage of 6.0 kV. Conversely, the encapsulated catalyst with hierarchical meso-micro-porous structure (i.e. Ni/D-S1) which has relatively small (i.e. average Ni particle sizes of 2.8±0.7 nm) and dispersed Ni nanoparticles (i.e. Ni dispersion of ca. 2.5 %) demonstrated comparatively the best catalytic performance (i.e. CO2 conversion of ca. 75 %) at 7.5 kV. Additionally, under the NTP conditions studied, Ni on carbon-templated mesoporous silicalite-1 (Ni/M-S1) showed the worst selectivity to CH4, which was attributed to the poor accessibility of Ni active sites encapsulated in the enclosed mesopores. This study demonstrated the crucial role of catalyst design in NTP activated catalysis.
AB - Non-thermal plasma (NTP) activated heterogeneous catalysis is a promising alternative to thermal catalysis for enabling many challenging reactions (e.g. catalytic CO2 hydrogenation) under mild conditions. However, the mechanistic insight into the interaction between highly energetic electrons and vibrationally-exited reactive species with metal catalyst is still lacking. Here, catalytically active Ni nanoparticles supported on silicalite-1 zeolites with different configurations regarding the location of Ni active sites and support pore structures were comparably investigated using catalytic CO2 hydrogenation under the thermal and NTP conditions. Experimental results revealed that the performance of the NTP-catalysis depends on the configuration of the catalysts significantly. Specifically, catalysts with Ni active sites sit on the outer surface of zeolite crystals (i.e. microporous Ni/S1 and Ni/M-S1@Shell with steam-assisted recrystallised micro-meso-porous structure) showed relatively good catalytic performance at a low applied voltage of 6.0 kV. Conversely, the encapsulated catalyst with hierarchical meso-micro-porous structure (i.e. Ni/D-S1) which has relatively small (i.e. average Ni particle sizes of 2.8±0.7 nm) and dispersed Ni nanoparticles (i.e. Ni dispersion of ca. 2.5 %) demonstrated comparatively the best catalytic performance (i.e. CO2 conversion of ca. 75 %) at 7.5 kV. Additionally, under the NTP conditions studied, Ni on carbon-templated mesoporous silicalite-1 (Ni/M-S1) showed the worst selectivity to CH4, which was attributed to the poor accessibility of Ni active sites encapsulated in the enclosed mesopores. This study demonstrated the crucial role of catalyst design in NTP activated catalysis.
KW - Non-thermal plasma (NTP)
KW - Heterogeneous catalysis
KW - Metal dispersion
KW - Silicalite-1 zeolite
KW - CO2 hydrogenation
U2 - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.119013
DO - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.119013
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0926-3373
VL - 272
JO - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
JF - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
M1 - 119013
ER -