Rh-Fe alloy derived from YRh0.5Fe0.5O3/ZrO2 for higher alcohols synthesis from syngas

• Published in: Catalysis today 2017-12, Vol.298, p.69-76
• Main Authors: Han, Tong, Zhao, Lin, Liu, Guilong, Ning, Hongyan, Yue, Yizhi, Liu, Yuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ethanol; Higher alcohols synthesis; Iron; Perovskite-type oxide; Rhodium
• ISSN: 0920-5861; 1873-4308
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cattod.2017.05.057

[Display omitted] •YRh0.5Fe0.5O3 with perovskite structure was loaded on ZrO2 by using citrate complexing method.•The formation of YRh0.5Fe0.5O3 is much favorable for generating Rh-Fe alloy NPs..•YRh0.5Fe0.5O3/ZrO2 exhibited good activity and high selectivity to alcohols.•Among the alcohols, the mass fraction of ethanol was 74%.•The formation of Rh-Fe alloys favors the improvement of the selectivity to ethanol. Traditional Rh-Fe catalysts usually exhibit high alkane or methanol selectivity due to the existence of mono iron and rhodium in the catalysts, and thus the selectivity to higher alcohols is low. To overcome this problem, in this work, YRh0.5Fe0.5O3 with perovskite structure was loaded on ZrO2 by using the citrate complexing method and used for higher alcohols synthesis. Compared with RhOx/ZrO2, YRhO3/ZrO2 and Rh-FeOx/ZrO2, the prepared YRh0.5Fe0.5O3/ZrO2 exhibited better activity and higher selectivity to higher alcohols, the mass fraction of higher alcohols in the total alcohols is more than 80%, especially ethanol occupied 74%. The high selectivity and activity of YRh0.5Fe0.5O3/ZrO2 are attributed to the formation of the homogeneous and highly dispersed Rh-Fe alloys. YRh0.5Fe0.5O3/ZrO2 also showed very good stability. More importantly, this preparation scheme can be extended for the preparation of other multi-component nano alloy catalysts.