Modulating Mxene‐Derived Ni‐Mom‐Mo2‐mTiC2Tx Structure for Intensified Low‐Temperature Ethanol Reforming

Abstract

AbstractThe technology of steam reforming of bioethanol has drawn great attention to green hydrogen production. However, catalyst deactivation has always been a significant obstacle to its applications. Here, a series of yNi/Mo2TiC2Tx (yNi/MTC) materials are tailored as robust catalysts for highly efficient long‐term ethanol reforming. The results reveal that hydrogen utilization efficiency of up to 95.6% and almost total ethanol conversion can be achieved at 550 °C using a 10Ni/MTC‐72h catalyst. Moreover, this catalyst has remarkable stability without obvious deactivation after 100 h of bioethanol reforming, which can be attributed to the formation of a Ni─Mo alloy and the strong interaction of the Ni‐Mom‐Mo2‐mTiC2Tx structure. The FTIR‐MS studies demonstrate the superiority of the 10Ni/MTC‐72h catalyst for reinforcing low‐temperature bioethanol activation, as verified by the faster conversion of acetate species than with Ni/Al2O3. The adsorption energies of ethanol on the surface of Ni (−1.07 eV) and Ni/MTC (−1.46 eV) are compared by density functional theory calculations and show the superiority of the Ni/MTC catalyst for activating ethanol during steam reforming. This study provides new implications for highly stabilized Ni‐Mom‐Mo2‐mTiC2Tx construction, which is expected to substantially promote the development and application of bioethanol‐to‐hydrogen production technologies.