2.1. Reaction mechanism of reverse water gas conversion reaction
The RWGS reaction has its unique advantages as one of the ways to utilize CO2. In order to design a reasonable catalyst, it is important to understand the mechanism of CO formation in the CO2 hydrogenation reaction in detail. RWGS reaction mechanism has always been a topic of debate among researchers, and existing researchers have proposed two RWGS reaction mechanisms which is redox mechanism and intermediate species decomposition mechanism. Which reaction mechanism to follow depends on the type of catalyst or reaction conditions. The two mechanisms reported in the current literature are still controversial. It is necessary to study the reaction mechanism of various catalyst types clearly for catalyst development.
redox mechanism
This mechanism mainly refers to the continuous oxidation and reduction of the active species in the catalyst in the CO2 and H₂ atmosphere during the RWGS reaction, so that the catalytic reaction can be sustained. CO2 first adsorbed on the catalyst, combined with the active site on the catalyst surface after dissociation to produce CO, the generated active oxygen substances exist on the active site of the catalyst, and then continue to reduce the catalyst to generate H₂O, and release the surface active site to continue to participate in the next round of reaction. H₂ is not directly involved in the synthesis of intermediate species. In this process, CO2 dissociation is the rate-limiting step, and the adsorption and desorption steps of CO and H₂O can be ignored. The basic reactions of the surface REDOX mechanism are as follows
Gines and co-workers prepared two catalysts, CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃ and CuO/Al₂O₃, by co-precipitation method. The mechanism of surface REDOX is proved by the kinetic experiment of RWGS reaction. According to the kinetic experiment results, it can be found that the reaction rate of CO
2 is controlled by dissociation adsorption. The chromatographic analysis showed that only CO was formed when CO
2/N₂ was inserted, which indicated that CO
2 was dissociated from the active site on the catalyst surface to form CO. In the H₂ atmosphere, only H₂O results, indicating that H₂ combines with active oxygen species on the catalyst surface to form H₂O. Wang et al. [
25] found that the oxygen vacancy formed on the surface of the pre-reduced Au/CeO₂ catalyst would be oxidized by CO
2 to produce CO. The process accords with the REDOX mechanism of RWGS. The author also loaded Au onto different carriers and found through pulse experiment that the amount of active oxygen on the surface of CeO₂ carrier was significantly higher than that of TiO₂ carrier. This is because CeO₂ has a good oxygen storage and oxygen supply capacity, and can assist Au atoms to complete the removal and production of surface reactive oxygen species.
Decomposition mechanism of intermediate species
Adsorption of intermediate species decomposition mechanism refers to the RWGS reaction, CO2 and H₂ on the catalyst are first activated to form intermediate species, and then decomposed into CO and H₂O. In recent years, in most of the literature on RWGS reactions, formates, carbonates, and carbonyl groups are the main intermediate species formed, and are considered to be the key steps for further CO generation.
It has been found from many research reports that there are different intermediates in RWGS reactions with different catalysts, and factors such as the properties of catalysts, the different interactions between metals and carriers, and the differences in reaction conditions lead to the complexity of the decomposition mechanism of intermediate species in RWGS reactions.
Liu et al. [
26] conducted a CO
2 dissociation experiment to explore the reaction pathway. Combined with the results of the CO
2 dissociation experiment and TPSR, CO
2 activation can be carried out through relevant intermediate pathways. In order to further explore the active intermediate, in situ diffuse infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) is performed. After the injection of CO
2 and H₂ on the activated 15CuCe catalyst, the formate signal can be detected in addition to the carbonate signal. In the presence of H₂, the Cu atom captures the H₂ molecule and breaks the H-H bond, then transfers the H atom to the CO
2.
Formate structures are formed with the formation of C-H bonds, and these structures are manifested in the intermediates IMA3, IMA3-I, IMA4, and IMA4-i. Based on the above experimental results and DFT calculation, the authors further concluded that the reaction involved the association mechanism, and the surface formates and carboxylic acid species may be important reaction intermediates. In the reaction process, a large number of surface oxygen vacancies are generated in situ and recycled, forming a synergistic catalytic effect with copper clusters, promoting the activation of CO2 and the formation of active intermediates. The copper clusters and abundant oxygen vacancies in the 15CuCe catalyst undoubtedly create more oxygen vacancy active interfaces of metal clusters.
Deng et al. [
27] explored the mechanism of Cu/SGS catalyst in RWGS reaction, and conducted in-situ DRIFTS experiments to observe intermediates generated during the catalytic process. The characteristic bands of bicarbonate and carbonate appear. The formate band appeared at about 150 °C and then gradually weakened above 200 °C, indicating that formate species formed at low temperatures. SGS is an alkaline carrier with many surface OH groups. With the increase of temperature, the OH band gradually weakened, indicating that the surface OHs participated in the catalytic process. According to DRIFTS experiment results, we observe that gas phase CO band appears above 250 °C, and the band becomes stronger with increasing temperature. However, no formate bands were observed above 250 °C, so it can be inferred that formate species are not intermediates in CO production. Carboxylate bands were found at 1260 cm⁻ ¹ and 1280cm¹, so it was determined that the reaction mechanism of Cu/SGS catalyst in the RWGS reaction is similar to the carboxylate pathway, *COOH is the intermediate of CO
2 to CO. Combined with the results of CO
2 TPD, it can be determined that the formation of *COOH comes from the adsorption and activation of CO
2 by the abundant OH groups on the SGS carrier. Species species in which OHs on the surface of SGS react with CO
32- to form HCO
3-. H₂ is adsorbed on Cu to form H*, and the HCO
3- substance reacts with H* on the surface of Cu to form *COOH. In addition, *COOH reacts with H* on the Cu surface to form CO* and OH*, and then CO and H₂O dissociate from the Cu surface.
2.3. Precious metal catalyst
Precious metal supported catalysts are the most common catalysts for RWGS. The main active species are Pt, Pd, Au, Ir, Rh, Ru, etc. The main carriers are SiO
2, CeO₂, TiO₂, and Al₂O₃, in which precious metals promote the dissociation of H₂, while oxide carriers facilitate the breakage of the C=O bond in CO
2. Dispersion and chemical state of precious metal nanoparticles are the key factors affecting catalyst performance, and have a great impact on the adsorption behavior of reactants on the catalyst and the subsequent intermediate species transformation [
28].
2.3.1. Pt-based catalyst
Supported Pt catalysts are widely used in RWGS reactions due to their excellent H₂ dissociation and hydrogenation activity.
Chen et al. [
29] found that the activation energy of CO production on Pt/CeO₂ catalyst was significantly lower than that on pure CeO₂ catalyst. The calculated TOF values were roughly the same across these Pt/CeO₂ catalysts, indicating that the RWGS reaction was insensitive to the size of the anchored Pt particles and the primary crystallinity of the CeO₂ carrier. The results of TPR and XPS showed that with the addition of Pt, the reducibility of CeO₂ carrier was enhanced, oxygen vacancy was more easily generated, and CO
2 activation was accelerated. In addition, through in-situ FT-IR and TPSR-MS experiments, we found that redox-and dissociation mechanisms co-exist in RWGS reactions on Pt/CeO₂ catalysts. CO
2 molecules adsorbed at the Ce³+ active site cannot directly generate CO, which is the same as the previous REDOX mechanism.
Liu et al. [
30] prepared Pt-Re/SiO₂ catalysts with different Re contents by co-impregnation and tested the RWGS reaction. The characterization results showed that the oxygenophilic ReOx (0≤x≤3.5) near the Pt particles modified the Pt surface through partial covering and electron interaction, resulting in a decrease in the number of CO adsorption sites and a decrease in adsorption strength. At 400℃, the turnover frequency of the optimal PT-Re/SiO₂ catalyst is 3.9 times higher than that of Pt/SiO₂, and the apparent activation energy is reduced. The CO selectivity on Pt-Re/SiO₂ remains above 96.2% compared to Re/SiO₂, which produces large amounts of CH₄. The reaction order analysis showed that Pt promoted H₂ activation, while oxyphilic ReOx enhanced CO
2 adsorption and activation. The peripheral sites of the Pt/ReOx interface have C-O cleavage properties, which can synergistically increase RWGS activity and inhibit the production of CH
4.
To improve the potential of H-doped WOy plasma effects, Ge etal. [
31] reported that Mo-doped Pt/WOy (Pt/MoWOy) significantly increases the concentration of dopant (H
+) and oxygen vacancy in Pt/HxMoWOy during H
2 reduction, promoting the photothermal hydrogenation of CO
2 to CO. The developed Pt/HxMoWOy showed excellent catalytic performance (3.1 mmol h
-1 g
-1) in the photothermal RWGS reaction at 140 °C, which was superior to the undoped Pt/ HxWOy (1.02 mmol h
-1 g
-1). The experiment and comprehensive analysis show that the abundant surface free electrons and oxygen vacancy (VO) in Pt/HxMoWOy are the reasons for the effective CO
2 adsorption and transfer. Characterization of catalysts revealed reversible redox of Mo and W atoms during RWGS reactions, confirming that oxygen vacancies between Mo and W atoms in Pt/HxMoWOy act as active sites. Pt nanoparticles activate H
2 to regenerate oxygen vacancies. In addition, density functional theory calculations show that Mo doping significantly reduces the energy barrier of oxygen vacancy formation in WOy during H
2 reduction.
He et al. [
32] synthesized a single-atom catalyst Pt1/SiC which the Pt particles are uniformly dispersed on SiC and applied it into the conversion of CO
2 via reverse water gas shift reaction, exhibiting a 100% selectively and 54% CO
2 conversion at 900 oC with a H
2/CO
2 ratio of 1:1. It was found that in the first few hours, the Pt1/SiC catalyst showed excellent stability with negligible decline in activity. However, over time, Pt1/SiC is gradually deactivated. After the reaction for 10 h, the CO
2 conversion rate remained relatively stable at about 50%. The authors attributed the decrease in catalyst activity to two factors: poisoning of Pt1/SiC catalyst caused by CO molecules and reduction of a small amount of Pt1/SiC.
2.3.2. Pd-based catalyst
Nelson et al. [
33] dispersed Pd on a TiO₂ carrier. The results show that in RWGS reaction, Pd is mainly dispersed on titanium dioxide in the form of isolated atoms. Achieving atomic dispersion requires artificially increasing the absolute surface area of titanium dioxide by an order of magnitude, which can be achieved by physically mixing the catalyst Pd/TiO₂ with pure titanium dioxide prior to the RWGS reaction. Kinetic analysis, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy showed that the RWGS activity of Pd/TiO₂-0.01 catalyst was very good within 92 h after in-situ dispersion of Pd atoms. The thermodynamic stability of Pd under high temperature RWGS reaction conditions is related to the PD-Ti coordination, which is related to the formation of oxygen vacancy and the artificial increase of titanium dioxide surface area.
2.3.3. Ru-based catalyst
Tang et al. [
34] prepared an efficient RWGS catalyst by encapsulating a Ru cluster with a size of 1nm in a hollow silica shell. The space-confined structure prevents the sintering of Ru clusters, and the permeable silica layer allows diffusion of gaseous reactants and products. This particle size reduction catalyst not only maintains the excellent activity of Ru in CO
2 hydrogenation reaction, but also exhibits close to 100% CO selectivity and excellent stability at 200-500℃.
Abdel-Mageed et al. [
35] investigated the effect of carrier particle size on the performance of highly active Ru/TiO₂ catalyst and found that after high-temperature reduction treatment, the selectivity of TiO₂ particle size can be controlled from 100% methanation to 100%CO. The comprehensive characterization of the catalysts shows that while the reaction behavior changes, their structure, chemical and electronic properties also change significantly. The chemical modification of the carrier by oxygen vacancy formation leads to the electronic modification of the Ru centers around the interface, which in turn affects the reaction behavior of these centers in CO
2 reduction reactions, from methanation to RWGS reactions.
2.3.4. Au-based catalyst
Abdallah et al. [
36] loaded titanium dioxide and zirconia support with very low content (<0.1wt%) Au and used it for RWGS reaction, and found that gold-based catalyst showed high catalytic activity for RWGS reaction at low temperature. At 250
oC, the catalytic activity of Au/TiO₂ catalyst is nearly 10 times that of Au/ZrO₂. In situ infrared drift results show that the formate reaction is the main intermediate species on Au/ZrO₂ catalyst, while on Au/TiO₂ catalyst, the reaction is carried out by the formation of hydroxyl carbonyl intermediates. The results of STEM, STEM-EELS, XPS and EPR in situ indicate that AU-O and -Ti³+ interface sites are responsible for the excellent activity of Au/TiO₂.
Precious metal catalysts (Pt, Pd, Au, Rh, Ru, etc.), although they have high catalytic activity and stability, are not easy to deactivate, but due to high prices and scarce resources, they are limited in large-scale application in industrialization, and are only suitable for laboratory mechanism research. Therefore, efforts are needed to find some alternative catalysts to precious metals.
2.6. Catalyst deactivation in reverse water gas conversion reaction
Under high temperature conditions, the catalyst used for RWGS reaction has poor thermal stability or weak interaction between the active component and the carrier, which leads to sintering and agglomeration of the catalyst at high temperature and decreases the activity of the catalyst [
67]. In addition, carbon deposition is also an important cause of catalyst deactivation. Carbon deposition, as the name suggests, is that the surface of the catalyst is covered by a certain form of carbon, and carbon is mainly formed by carbon-containing substances in the raw material breaking bonds on the surface of the catalyst or first coking and then dehydrogenation. These carbon species cover the active site, thus reducing catalyst activity. Therefore, the stability of the catalyst at high temperatures is extremely important for RWGS reaction.
Yang et al. [
67] mixed Fe into Ni/CeO₂-Al₂O₃ and the NiFe/CeO₂-Al₂O₃ catalyst showed an excellent CO
2 conversion rate in the stability test at 800000 mL·g¹·h
-¹ and 700
oC. FeOx greatly enhances Ni dispersion on the surface, which helps to provide higher activity in the reaction. In addition, FeOx-Ni interaction leads to electron enrichment of Ni surface atoms, and higher electron density is conducive to CO
2 adsorption. The 0.3CuMgAl-LDH-400 catalyst prepared by the hydrothermal method by Chen et al. [
68] showed high stability during the RWGS reaction, and the activity remained unchanged for more than 30h, which was due to the fact that the use of LDH as a carrier improved the dispersion of Cu and the presence of more alkaline sites. On the contrary, the catalytic activity of 0.3CuMgAl-IMP-400 prepared by impregnation decreased slightly after 20 h of reaction. The results show that the catalyst prepared with LDH as the support has better stability.
Goguet et al. [
69,
70] studied the deactivation process of Pt/CeO₂ catalysts. The stability test results show that the initial CO
2 conversion rate is stable at 13.7%, and the CO selectivity is greater than 99%. As the reaction progresses, its catalytic activity begins to gradually decrease, possibly due to carbon deposition of the catalyst, or sintering of the metal. In order to clarify the deactivation principle, the TPO cycle test was performed on Pt/CeO₂ catalyst before and after the reaction. The results show that there is a linear relationship between the degree of deactivation of Pt/CeO₂ catalyst and the amount of carbon deposition. The place where carbon deposition occurs is the active part of the reaction. With the increase of time, the active part is gradually covered by carbon deposition, which leads to catalyst deactivation.