Structural Aspects of Activation and Deactivation of Cobalt Catalysts in Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide

摘要

The hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methane and other hydrocarbons is an interesting catalytic alternative to the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. One of the metals known to be active for this process is cobalt. To get a better understanding of the catalytic process, it is of great interest to elucidate the microscopic processes taking place in the various catalytic steps. Included are structural and chemical changes of the catalyst surface, which most likely influence the overall catalytic performance or the activation and deactivation of the catalyst. Concerning the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide on cobalt, pioneering work by Amariglio et al. /1 - 3/ revealed interesting correlations between activation/deactivation behaviour and oxidizing pretreatments of the catalysts.