Understanding the promoter effect of Cu and Cs over highly effective β-Mo2C catalysts for the reverse water-gas shift reaction

Mo2C is an effective catalyst for chemical CO2 upgrading via reverse water-gas shift (RWGS). In this work, we demonstrate that the activity and selectivity of this system can be boosted by the addition of promoters such as Cu and Cs. The addition of Cu incorporates extra active sites such as Cu+ and Cu° which are essential for the reaction. Cs is an underexplored dopant whose marked electropositive character generates electronic perturbations on the catalyst’s surface leading to enhanced catalytic performance. Also, the Cs-doped catalyst seems to be in-situ activated due to a re-carburization phenomenon which results in fairly stable catalysts for continuous operations. Overall, this work showcases a strategy to design highly efficient catalysts based on promoted β-Mo2C for CO2 recycling via RWGS.Financial support for this work was provided by the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Surrey and the EPSRC grant EP/R512904/1 as well as the Royal Society Research GrantRSGR1180353. LPP acknowledge Comunitat Valenciana for her APOSTD2017 fellowship. This work was also partially sponsored by the CO2Chem through the EPSRC grant EP/P026435/1