Sulfate residuals on Ru catalysts switch CO2 reduction from methanation to reverse water-gas shift reaction

Abstract Efficient heterogeneous catalyst design primarily focuses on engineering the active sites or supports, often neglecting the impact of trace impurities on catalytic performance. Herein, we demonstrate that even trace amounts of sulfate (SO 4 2− ) residuals on Ru/TiO 2 can totally change the CO 2 reduction from methanation to reverse-water gas shift (RWGS) reaction under atmospheric pressure. We reveal that air annealing causes the trace amount of SO 4 2− to migrate from TiO 2 to Ru/TiO 2 interface, leading to the significant changes in product selectivity from CH 4 to CO. Detailed characterizations and DFT calculations show that the sulfate at Ru/TiO 2 interface notably enhances the H transfer from Ru particles to the TiO 2 support, weakening the CO intermediate activation on Ru particles and inhibiting the further hydrogenation of CO to CH 4 . This discovery highlights the vital role of trace impurities in CO 2 hydrogenation reaction, and also provides broad implications for the design and development of more efficient and selective heterogeneous catalysts.