Direct Conversion of CO <sub>2</sub> into Ethylene Over Fe-Decorated Hierarchical Molybdenum Carbide: Tailoring Activity and Stability

Abstract

In the past few years, the production olefin from various resources, particularly from carbon-rich sources, such as crude oil, natural gas, coal, and biomass, has received considerable attention. This study presented the production of light olefins by conducting CO2 hydrogenation through reverse water-gas shift and modified Fischer–Tropsch synthesis by employing a Fe-decorated large surface molybdenum carbide catalyst. A novel strategy was adopted for the synthesis of large surface mesoporous molybdenum carbide by using a hard template. A theoretical loading limit of Fe nanoparticles, calculated using density functional theory, was decorated over β-Mo2C through simple wetness impregnation. The trans isomers of Fe-doped β-Mo2C exhibited higher symmetry and were energetically slightly more stable for the hydrogenation of CO2 into light olefins than the cis isomers. Under the optimized condition, Fe(0.5)-Mo2C showed 7.3% CO2 conversion with 79.4% C2= olefins.