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

Abstract

AbstractEfficient 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 (Fe2N, Fe3N, and Fe4N) 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 Fe2N and Fe3N catalysts, in which the N content was higher than that in Fe4N (iron nitrides transformed to Fe2C partly). The catalytic performance indicated that higher alcohols could be directly produced from syngas with remarkable selectivity (>51 % for C2+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.