Methanol conversion on borocarbonitride catalysts: Identification and quantification of active sites

Zhang X, Yan P, Xu J, Li F, Herold F, Etzold BJ, Wang P, Su DS, Lin S, Qi W, Xie Z (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Science Advances American Association for the Advancement of Science

Book Volume: 6

Article Number: eaba5778

Journal Issue: 26

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5778

Abstract

Borocarbonitrides (BCNs) have emerged as highly selective catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) reaction. However, there is a lack of in-depth understanding of the catalytic mechanism over BCN catalysts due to the complexity of the surface oxygen functional groups. Here, BCN nanotubes with multiple active sites are synthesized for oxygen-assisted methanol conversion reaction. The catalyst shows a notable activity improvement for methanol conversion (29%) with excellent selectivity to formaldehyde (54%). Kinetic measurements indicate that carboxylic acid groups on BCN are responsible for the formation of dimethyl ether, while the redox catalysis to formaldehyde occurs on both ketonic carbonyl and boron hydroxyl (B-OH) sites. The ODH reaction pathway on the B-OH site is further revealed by in situ infrared, x-ray absorption spectra, and density functional theory. The present work provides physical-chemical insights into the functional mechanism of BCN catalysts, paving the way for further development of the underexplored nonmetallic catalytic systems.

Authors with CRIS profile

Bastian Etzold

Involved external institutions

Fuzhou University (FZU) CN China (CN) Institute of Metal Research Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR CAS) CN China (CN) Technische Universität Darmstadt DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Zhang, X., Yan, P., Xu, J., Li, F., Herold, F., Etzold, B.J.,... Xie, Z. (2020). Methanol conversion on borocarbonitride catalysts: Identification and quantification of active sites. Science Advances, 6(26). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba5778

MLA:

Zhang, Xuefei, et al. "Methanol conversion on borocarbonitride catalysts: Identification and quantification of active sites." Science Advances 6.26 (2020).

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