Uncovering the reaction mechanism behind CoO as active phase for CO2 hydrogenation

Transforming carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels, is a promising tool for environmental and industrial purposes. Here, we present catalysts comprising of cobalt (oxide) nanoparticles stabilized on various support oxides for hydrocarbon production from carbon dioxide. We demonstrate that the activity and selectivity can be tuned by selection of the support oxide and cobalt oxidation state. Modulated excitation (ME) diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) reveals that cobalt oxide catalysts follows the hydrogen-assisted pathway, whereas metallic cobalt catalysts mainly follows the direct dissociation pathway. Contrary to the commonly considered metallic active phase of cobalt-based catalysts, cobalt oxide on titania support is the most active catalyst in this study and produces 11% C2+ hydrocarbons. The C2+ selectivity increases to 39% (yielding 104 mmol h−1 gcat−1 C2+ hydrocarbons) upon co-feeding CO and CO2 at a ratio of 1:2 at 250 °C and 20 bar, thus outperforming the majority of typical cobalt-based catalysts.

Highly sensitive detection of phosphate using well-ordered crystalline cobalt oxide nanoparticles supported by multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Phosphates are well-known groundwater and surface water contaminants, with even modest increases in their concentration contributing to the eutrophication of lakes and coastal waterways and thus potentially harming the environment....

Electronic structure regulation of cobalt oxide clusters for promoting photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Photocatalysis for water decomposition under solar light is a promising route to produce clean hydrogen energy. Although both single atom catalysts (SACs) and atomic cluster catalysts are effective ways to...

Dynamic electric-field-induced magnetic effects in cobalt oxide thin films: towards magneto-ionic synapses

Voltage control of magnetism via electric-field-driven ion migration (magneto-ionics) has generated intense interest due to its potential to greatly reduce heat dissipation in a wide range of information technology devices,...