Boosting CO2 methanation activity on Ru/TiO2 catalysts by exposing (001) facets of anatase TiO2

Catalytic reduction of CO2 to methane has been recognized as one of the most important strategic reactions to produce highly valuable chemicals and for storage of renewable energy (power-to-gas). This study demonstrates a crystal facet-dependent catalytic reduction of CO2 to CH4 on ruthenium nanoparticles deposited over TiO2 nanocrystal with exposed (001) and (101) facets. Compared with TiO2 (101) nanocrystal with the same Ru loading, Ru nanoparticles supported by TiO2 (001) exhibited a highly enhanced CO2 conversion rate and significantly improved methanation reactivity, along with a considerable durability. The physicochemical properties of the samples were characterized by HR-TEM, XRD, BET, FT-IR, UV-vis, Raman, ICP, and temperature-programmed reaction with CO2, and CO2 + H-2. In view of the difference in catalytic activity and the physicochemical properties of the supported Ru/TiO2 catalysts, the results uncovered that the nature of the catalyst support of Ru/TiO2 strongly affected the dispersion of Ru species and the synergistic effect between Ru and underlying TiO2 supporting materials due to the strong metal-support interaction, and thus affected their capability to activate CO2 and determined the catalytic activity for CO2 methanation. Our work demonstrated the important role of the exposed crystal facets of the underlying support and the resulting Ru particle which had a large effect on CO2 methanation.