Direct observation of the kinetically relevant site of CO hydrogenation on supported Ru catalyst at 700 K by time-resolved FT-IR spectroscopy

Abstract

Time-resolved FT-IR spectra of carbon monoxide hydrogenation over alumina-supported ruthenium particles were recorded on the millisecond time scale at 700 K using pulsed release of CO and a continuous flow of H₂–N₂ (ratio 0.067 or 0.15, 1 atm total pressure). Adsorbed carbon monoxide was detected along with gas phase products methane (3016 and 1306 cm⁻¹), water (1900–1300 cm⁻¹), and carbon dioxide (2348 cm⁻¹). Aside from adsorbed CO, no other surface species were observed. The rate of formation of methane is 2.5 ± 0.4 s⁻¹ and coincides with the rate of carbon dioxide growth (3.4 ± 0.6 s⁻¹), thus indicating that CH₄ and CO₂ originate from a common intermediate. The broad band of adsorbed carbon monoxide has a maximum at 2010 cm⁻¹ at early times (36 ms) that shifts gradually to 1960 cm⁻¹ over a period of 3 s as a result of the decreasing surface concentration of CO. Kinetic analysis of the adsorbed carbon monoxide reveals that surface sites absorbing at the high frequency end of the infrared band are temporally linked to gas phase product growth. Specifically, a (linear) CO site at 2026 cm⁻¹ decays with a rate constant of 2.9 ± 0.1 s⁻¹, which coincides with the rise constant of CH₄. This demonstrates that the linear CO site at 2026 cm⁻¹ is the kinetically most relevant one for the rate-determining CO dissociation step under reaction conditions at 700 K.