The influence of different iron carbides on the activity and selectivity of iron-based Fischer−Tropsch catalysts has been studied. Different iron carbide phases are obtained by the pretreatment of a binary Fe/SiO 2 model catalyst (prepared by coprecipitation method) to different gas atmospheres (syngas, CO, or H 2 ). The phase structures, compositions, and particle sizes of the catalysts are characterized systematically by XRD, XAFS, MES, and TEM. It is found that in the syngas-treated catalyst only χ-Fe 5 C 2 carbide is formed. In the CO-treated catalyst, Fe 7 C 3 and χ-Fe 5 C 2 with a bimodal particle size distribution are formed, while the H 2 -treated catalyst exhibits the bimodal size distributed ε-Fe 2 C and χ-Fe 5 C 2 after a Fischer−Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction. The intrinsic FTS activity is calculated and assigned to each corresponding iron carbide based on the phase composition and the particle size. It is identified that Fe 7 C 3 has the highest intrinsic activity (TOF = 4.59 × 10 −2 s −1 ) among the three candidate carbides (ε-Fe 2 C, Fe 7 C 3 , and χ-Fe 5 C 2 ) in typical medium-temperature Fischer−Tropsch (MTFT) conditions (260−300 °C, 2−3 MPa, and H 2 /CO = 2). Moreover, FTS over ε-Fe 2 C leads to the lowest methane selectivity.

The stability of β-Mo2C surfaces has been computed at the level of density functional theory under the consideration of the temperature, pressure, and molar ratios of CH4 /H2 and CO/CO2 gas mixtures by using ab initio atomistic thermodynamic calculations. It was found that the (001) surface is most stable at low temperature, whereas (101) becomes dominant at high temperature with CH4 as carbon source, and the computed surface stability is supported by the experimental X-ray diffraction pattern and intensity. For CO as carbon source, the (101) surface has the smallest surface Gibbs free energy at temperatures up to 1000 K and is most stable. On the basis of the Wulff-type particle shapes from surface Gibbs free energies the (101) facet represents the largest surface area of β-Mo2C. Our findings are in perfect agreement with the results of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy.

Carbon-carbon bond-forming reductive elimination from elusive organocopper(III) complexes has been considered the key step in many copper-catalyzed and organocuprate reactions. However, organocopper(III) complexes with well-defined structures that can undergo reductive elimination are extremely rare, especially for the formation of Csp 3-Csp 3 bonds. We report herein a general method for the synthesis of a series [alkyl-Cu III-(CF 3) 3 ]complexes, the structures of which have been unequivocally characterized by NMR, mass spectrometry and X-ray crystal diffraction. At elevated temperature, these complexes undergo reductive elimination following first-order kinetics, forming alky-CF 3 products with good yields (up to 91%). Both Kinetic studies and DFT calculations indicate that the reductive elimination to form Csp 3-CF 3 bonds proceeds through a concerted transition state, with a ΔH ‡ =20 kcal/mol barrier.

Reported here is the chelate effect as a design principle for tuning heterogeneous catalysts for electrochemical CO reduction. Palladium functionalized with a chelating tris-N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligand (Pd-timtmb ) exhibits a 32-fold increase in activity for electrochemical reduction of CO to C1 products with high Faradaic efficiency (FE =86 %) compared to the parent unfunctionalized Pd foil (FE=23 %), and with sustained activity relative to a monodentate NHC-ligated Pd electrode (Pd-mimtmb ). The results highlight the contributions of the chelate effect for tailoring and maintaining reactivity at molecular-materials interfaces enabled by surface organometallic chemistry.