Single-Atom Platinum Catalyst for Efficient CO(2) Conversion via Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction

The need to tackle CO(2) emissions arising from the continuously rising combustion of fossil fuels has sparked considerable interest in investigating the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction. This reaction holds great promise as an alternative technique for the conversion and utilization of CO(2). In this study, a scalable method was employed to synthesize a single-atom Pt catalyst, uniformly dispersed on SiC, where up to 6.4 wt% Pt(1) was loaded onto a support based on ligand modification and UV photoreduction. This Pt(1)/SiC catalyst exhibited a high selectivity (100%) towards the RWGS reaction; 54% CO(2) conversion was observed at 900 °C with a H(2)/CO(2) feed-in ratio of 1:1, significantly higher than the conventional Pt nanoparticle counterparts. Moreover, Pt(1)/SiC displayed a robust stability during the long-term test. The activation energy with as-synthesized Pt(1)/SiC was further calculated to be 61.6 ± 6.4 kJ/mol, which is much lower than the 91.6 ± 15.9 kJ/mol of the Pt nanoparticle counterpart and other Pt-based catalysts reported so far. This work offers new insights into the utilization of diverse single-atom catalysts for the RWGS reaction and other crucial catalytic processes, paving the way for the further exploration and application of SACs in various industrial endeavors.