RuCu bimetallic catalyst on N-doped mesoporous carbon for high-performance CO2 methanation

CO2 methanation draws great attention since it could relieve the global climate change while providing important chemical feedstock simultaneously. In this work, we designed a nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon spheres supported RuCu bimetallic nanoparticles (RuCu/NMCN) for high-performance thermal catalytic CO2 methanation. It is found that, due to its high thermal conductivity, and excellent capacity to store H2 and CO2, NMCN is an ideal supporting material. Moreover, the relative Ru/Cu ratio of the RuCu bimetallic catalysts strongly influences the reaction performance, among which the optimal reaction performance is evidenced with a Ru/Cu ratio of 1/10. More interestingly, it is proved that the presence of Cu is more conducive to inhibiting carbon deposition. At 500 °C, the optimised RuCu/NMCN-3 exhibited the highest catalytic activity for thermocatalytic CO2 methanation (53%) with 88% CH4 selectivity. This work provides insight into the rational application of bimetallic catalyst for CO2 methanation processes.