Fe-decorated hierarchical molybdenum carbide for direct conversion of CO₂into ethylene: Tailoring activity and stability

In the past few years, the production of olefins from various resources, particularly from carbon-rich sources, such as crude oil, natural gas, coal, and biomass, has received considerable attention. This study presented the production of light olefins by conducting CO₂hydrogenation through modified Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (M-FTS) by employing a Fe-decorated large surface molybdenum carbide catalyst. A novel strategy was adopted for the synthesis of large surface mesoporous molybdenum carbide by using a hard template. A theoretical loading limit of Fe nanoparticles, calculated using density functional theory, was decorated over β-Mo₂C through simple wetness impregnation. The trans isomers of Fe-doped β-Mo₂C exhibited higher symmetry and were energetically slightly more stable for the hydrogenation of CO₂into light olefins than the cis isomers. Under the optimized condition, Fe(0.5)-Mo₂C showed 7.3% CO₂conversion with 79.4% C₂⁼olefins.