In situ XAFS study on the formation process of cobalt carbide by Fischer-Tropsch reaction.

Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis is an effective approach to convert the syngas of H and CO into lower olefin and other valuable products for the chemical industry. Cobalt carbide (CoC), which was regarded as the sign of activity loss in the past, has recently been recognized as a highly-active phase for F-T synthesis. However, systematic study on the formation process of CoC by F-T reaction is still lacking. Herein, for the first time, in situ XAFS (X-ray Absorption Fine Structure) experiments were conducted to elaborate the CoC formation under operando conditions. F-T reaction processes starting from Co and CoO were analysed with the conclusion that CoC could be formed under both conditions. For the CoO process, CoC was transformed directly from CoO as a wavelet transform and EXAFS fitting results revealed that there was no sign of Co metal in the whole process. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that the ΔG value of the CoO process is much smaller than that of the Co process, which means that CoO is thermodynamically easier to transform to CoC. Combining with the shorter reduction time from CoO to CoO, it can be concluded that CoO is more favourable as the precursor to synthesize CoC, which might be applied to the F-T industry. Besides, catalytic evaluation shows that the CO selectivity, CO conversion and the ratio of olefin/paraffin for the CoO process are different from those of the Co process. In addition, the reaction temperatures were also investigated wherein CoC would be partially transformed to metallic Co when the temperature was increased up to 270 °C. This work provides fundamental and applicable guidance towards the synthesis of CoC by F-T reaction.