Particle size effect for cobalt Fischer–Tropsch catalysts based on in situ CO chemisorption

Abstract

The cobalt particle size effect on activity and selectivity for CO hydrogenation was revisited on cobalt catalysts supported on a large variety of supports at 483K, 1.85bar, and H2/CO/Ar=15/1.5/33.5Nml/min. The size dependence of the activity and selectivity was analyzed in terms of site coverage and rate constants based on SSITKA experimental results. It was found that the Co particle size index estimated by the conventional method, namely, ex situ hydrogen chemisorption, could not correlate well the activity and selectivity as a function of the particle size index. The same holds for the site coverage of CO and intermediates leading to methane formation. However, the cobalt particle size index based on in situ CO chemisorption measured at 373K provides a good correlation for turnover frequencies (TOFs) at reaction conditions. It was observed that TOF for CO conversion (TOFCO) increased with increasing particle size index of cobalt and SSITKA experiments showed that this was possibly due to increased site coverage of CO. The TOF for methane formation (TOFCH4) increased with particle size and remained constant at higher particle sizes possibly due to combined effect from the site coverage of intermediates leading to methane (θCHx) and the pseudo-first-order rate constant (kt). The results suggest that the support can play an important role for the size dependence of the activity and selectivity of CO hydrogenation on Co catalysts.