Direct and stable hydrogenation of CO to aromatics over a tandem catalyst ZnTiO/HZSM-5.

Direct and stable conversion of CO to aromatics (CTA) is an attractive route for reducing CO emissions. However, due to the chemical inertness of CO, direct CTA reaction with high aromatics selectivity is still challenging. In this work, a tandem catalyst ZnTiO/HZSM-5 with appropriate density and strength of acid sites exhibits a high aromatics selectivity of 67.2% and long-term stability over 100 h. Furthermore, the total selectivity of benzene, toluene, and xylene achieves 24.1% over ZnTiO/HZSM-5 with a modified hydrophilic surface. In addition, the CTA via the formate route has been determined in this reaction system.