ZSM‐5‐Promoted Co‐Based Light‐Assisted Thermocatalytic Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis Catalyst for Production of Liquid Fuel

Abstract

Light‐assisted thermocatalytic Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) provides a more efficient and sustainable approach to synthesizing high‐value chemicals compared to the thermal‐driven FTS. However, producing liquid fuel via cobalt‐based light‐assisted thermocatalytic FTS catalyst poses a challenge since photogenerated electrons increase CO conversion simultaneously with a significant reduction in the selectivity of C5+ product. Herein, a cobalt‐based light‐assisted thermocatalytic FTS catalyst containing ZSM‐5 molecular sieve promoter is prepared by a unique wet chemical reduction method, and the constructed 15%Co/Ta3N5‐ZSM‐5 catalyst exhibits nearly 90% C5+ product selectivity and 63% CO conversion under photothermal condition. Further characterization indicates that the simultaneous increase in the number of active sites and the density of acidic sites in the catalyst is crucial to achieve a simultaneous increase in CO conversion and C5+ product selectivity, which enables the catalyst to produce liquid fuel via light‐assisted thermocatalytic FTS reaction. This work provides an approach to introduce solar energy into the process of liquid fuel production, which can improve the sustainability of the liquid fuel production process.