Regulation of Cu+ Distribution by O2-Induced Strong Metal-Support Interaction for Boosting Reverse Water-Gas Shift Reaction

Abstract

Strong metal-support interaction induced by oxygen (O2-SMSI) is an efficient strategy to modulate the distribution of active metal with different electronic states over the oxide supported metal catalysts. However, the intrinsic correlation between the intensity of SMSI and the electronic structure of supported metals remains inadequate. In this work, the intensity of O2-SMSI over the Cu/Y2O3 catalyst was tuned by the calcination temperature, which regulated the distribution of Cu0, Cu+ and Cu2+ species. The Cu/Y2O3 catalyst with the highest amount of Cu+ exhibits superior performance of reverse water-gas shift reaction. Due to the enhanced H2 activation and promoted charge-transfer at the interfacial Cu+/Y2O3 site based on the experimental characterizations, the CO formation rate reached 220 mmolCOgcat-1h-1 at 500 °C. The present work provides an efficient way to regulate the supported metal species with the specific electronic state.

Keywords: Metal-support interaction, CO2 hydrogenation, Cu+ ratio, Y2O3