Interfacial compatibility critically controls Ru/TiO(2) metal-support interaction modes in CO(2) hydrogenation

Supports can widely affect or even dominate the catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability of metal nanoparticles through various metal-support interactions (MSIs). However, underlying principles have not been fully understood yet, because MSIs are influenced by the composition, size, and facet of both metals and supports. Using Ru/TiO(2) supported on rutile and anatase as model catalysts, we demonstrate that metal-support interfacial compatibility can critically control MSI modes and catalytic performances in CO(2) hydrogenation. Annealing Ru/rutile-TiO(2) in air can enhance CO(2) conversion to methane resulting from enhanced interfacial coupling driven by matched lattices of RuO(x) with rutile-TiO(2); annealing Ru/anatase-TiO(2) in air decreases CO(2) conversion and converts the product into CO owing to strong metal-support interaction (SMSI). Although rutile and anatase share the same chemical composition, we show that interfacial compatibility can basically modify metal-support coupling strength, catalyst morphology, surface atomic configuration, MSI mode, and catalytic performances of Ru/TiO(2) in heterogeneous catalysis.