Efficient One‐Pot Synthesis of Higher Alcohols from Syngas Catalyzed by Iron Nitrides

Abstract Efficient synthesis of higher alcohols from syngas over a single‐metal catalyst remains challenging because both active sites for CO dissociation and molecular CO adsorption are required. We report herein that iron nitrides can directly catalyze syngas to higher alcohols with high selectivity. Three iron nitride catalysts (Fe 2 N, Fe 3 N, and Fe 4 N) were fabricated via the nitriding of α‐Fe and their structures were confirmed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and Mössbauer spectroscopy (MES). Moreover, no carbides were detected even after syngas conversion for Fe 2 N and Fe 3 N catalysts, in which the N content was higher than that in Fe 4 N (iron nitrides transformed to Fe 2 C partly). The catalytic performance indicated that higher alcohols could be directly produced from syngas with remarkable selectivity (>51 % for C 2+ OH selectivity in total alcohols) over iron nitrides, which was tentatively ascribed to the unique electronic structure of iron nitrides, as evidenced by DFT calculation. This study proposed a novel method for the selective one‐step synthesis of higher alcohols from syngas.