Mechanistic role of water on the rate and selectivity of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis on ruthenium catalysts

David D Hibbitts; Brett T Loveless; Matthew Neurock; Enrique Iglesia

doi:10.1002/anie.201304610

Mechanistic role of water on the rate and selectivity of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis on ruthenium catalysts

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2013 Nov 18;52(47):12273-8. doi: 10.1002/anie.201304610. Epub 2013 Oct 2.

Authors

David D Hibbitts¹, Brett T Loveless, Matthew Neurock, Enrique Iglesia

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 94720 (USA) http://iglesia.cchem.berkeley.edu/

PMID: 24123803
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201304610

Abstract

Water increases Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) rates on Ru through H-shuttling processes. Chemisorbed hydrogen (H*) transfers its electron to the metal and protonates the O-atom of CO* to form COH*, which subsequently hydrogenates to *HCOH* in the kinetically relevant step. H2 O also increases the chain length of FTS products by mediating the H-transfer steps during reactions of alkyl groups with CO* to form longer-chain alkylidynes and OH*.

Keywords: Fischer-Tropsch synthesis; density functional calculations; heterogeneous catalysis; hydrogenation; kinetics.