CO-resistant hydrogenation over noble metal/α-MoC catalyst

Xuan Liang; Xiangxin Jin; Shixiang Yu; Chengyu Li; Chuqiao Song; Guan Sheng; Xuemin Ye; Rui Gao; Lili Lin; Ding Ma

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-59321-0

CO-resistant hydrogenation over noble metal/α-MoC catalyst

Nat Commun. 2025 May 5;16(1):4159. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59321-0.

Authors

Xuan Liang^#¹, Xiangxin Jin^#², Shixiang Yu¹, Chengyu Li¹, Chuqiao Song², Guan Sheng², Xuemin Ye², Rui Gao³, Lili Lin^{4

5}, Ding Ma⁶

Affiliations

¹ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Synthesis and Conversion, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Science and Engineering for Catalysts, College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310014, China.
³ Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Catalysis, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China. gaorui@imu.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Synthesis and Conversion, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Science and Engineering for Catalysts, College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310014, China. linll@zjut.edu.cn.
⁵ Zhejiang Carbon Neutral Innovation Institute & Zhejiang International Cooperation Base for Science and Technology on Carbon Emission Reduction and Monitoring, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, China. linll@zjut.edu.cn.
⁶ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China. dma@pku.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

"Hydrogenation by crude H₂ - dehydrogenation to produce pure H₂" strategy using liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) can reduce the cost and shorten the process of hydrogen purification and utilization. The critical challenge is to eliminate catalyst poisoning by CO impurity in crude H₂. Here, we develop a Pd/α-MoC catalyst that enables efficient hydrogenation of N-LOHCs under crude hydrogen feeds (CO concentration>5 vol%) below 150 °C, and has an activity 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than that of traditional Pd-based catalysts. The CO-resistant hydrogenation is also successfully conducted in the models of industrial crude H₂ including CO, CO₂ and CH₄. Water, as solvent, contributes greatly to the hydrogenation activity against CO poisoning, since the utilization of low-temperature water gas shift (WGS) reaction. Moreover, the positive-charged Pd species hinder the combination of H* from WGS reaction and suppressed the undesirable H₂ formation and release, which explains the substantial improvement in the performance of Pd/α-MoC compared to that of Pt/α-MoC.

Abstract

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