Photothermal conversion of CO2 into lower olefins at the interface of the K-promoted Ru/Fe3O4 catalyst

Summary

Solar-driven conversion of CO₂ to high-value-added chemicals and fuels offers a practical route to alleviate CO₂ emissions where photodriven catalytic CO₂ hydrogenation toward lower olefins is a great challenge due to the crucial bottleneck of C–C coupling. Here, we report a K-promoted Ru/Fe₃O₄ catalyst that efficiently drives photothermal catalytic CO₂ hydrogenation to lower olefins via the Fischer-Tropsch-to-olefin process, where the production rate reaches 0.63 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ with the highest olefin/paraffin ratio of 10.2. The formation of Ru-FeO_x at the interface of Ru nanoparticles and the Fe₃O₄ support plays a decisive role in forming C–C bonds and determining the hydrocarbon products. The photochemical contribution promotes electron transfer at the interface of K-promoted Ru/Fe₃O₄, significantly enhances the activation and dissociation of CO₂, and abruptly inhibits the hydrogenation of olefins. Therefore, the product distribution and selectivity of olefins are distinctly different from those of the thermal catalysis process.