The role of SiOxCy in the catalytic performance of Co/SiC catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

Abstract

Co/SiC catalysts were prepared to investigate the role of SiOxCy on SiC surface in the catalytic performance for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. SiC was pretreated by nitric acid with different concentration, and the Co/SiC catalysts were prepared and characterized by N2-adsorption, H2-chemisorption, XRD, TPR, TPO, XPS, and TEM. It was found that the decrease of SiOxCy caused by nitric acid treatment may be related to the increase of reducibility of Co/SiC catalysts and the decrease of binding energy of cobalt. The catalytic performance revealed that the less the content of SiOxCy was, the higher the selectivity of long chain hydrocarbon was. It was concluded that the strong electronegativity of SiOxCy had great effect on the electron density of cobalt species and then on the catalytic performance of the Co/SiC catalysts.